Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War of the United States, arrived this Wednesday at the Naval Base in Guantánamo, in eastern Cuba, to meet with the troops stationed at the facility.
The Department of War officially announced the trip on Tuesday through a statement on its website, and Phil Stewart, Reuters' chief national security correspondent, also confirmed it on the social network X.
Hegseth's tour includes two destinations: the Guantanamo Naval Base and Tampa, Florida, where he will meet with personnel from U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), whose headquarters is located in that city.
This is not the first time Hegseth has traveled to the military base in Cuba. On February 25, 2025, he visited as part of the migrant detention operations initiated by the Trump administration, which included a tour of the processing areas, security, and Camp VI, as well as meetings with personnel from various units.
The visit comes at a time of sustained tension between Washington and Havana. The head of Southern Command, General Francis L. Donovan, met with Hegseth at the Pentagon on May 21, amidst escalating tensions that included the deployment of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier in the Caribbean.
On May 29, Donovan personally visited Guantánamo and held a recent unprecedented meeting with Cuban General Roberto Legrá Sotolongo, First Deputy Minister and Chief of the General Staff of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), described by Southern Command as "a brief exchange on operational security matters."
On that same date, the U.S. deployed more than 1,300 marines in the Caribbean under Operation Southern Spear, and Southern Command officially described Guantanamo as "a vital operational and logistical center that supports U.S. military efforts to counter threats that undermine security, stability, and democracy in the hemisphere."
The background of specific threats also looms over the visit. According to a report by Axios from May 17, Cuba is said to have acquired more than 300 military drones from Russia and Iran since 2023, with plans discussed to use them against the base, U.S. military ships, and possibly Key West.
The Cuban regime, for its part, has escalated its rhetoric. Ambassador Rodolfo Benítez Verson warned at the UN Disarmament Conference in Geneva on May 29 that "if a military aggression occurs, rest assured that the Cuban people will fight, to the last consequences, to defend their sovereignty and independence."
Cuban Deputy Minister Josefina Vidal acknowledged that "there has not been much progress in the dialogues between Havana and Washington," a view that aligns with that of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on May 21 also admitted to not seeing "much advancement" in contacts with Cuba.
On June 5, the deadline set by Washington for foreign companies to cease operations with GAESA, the Cuban military business conglomerate, expired, under the threat of secondary sanctions. Additional pressure is placed on the regime with Hegseth's arrival on the island.
Filed under: