Related videos:
Roy Perrin, Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, held a meeting this week about Cuba with Lieutenant General Evan Pettus, Deputy Commander of the United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), as reported by the embassy itself on its Instagram account this Friday.
The diplomatic publication described the meeting as "a productive conversation about Cuba," without specifying the location or the specific topics on the agenda.
Perrin holds the second rank in the U.S. diplomatic mission on the island, just below the head of mission Mike Hammer.
He was appointed to that position on August 21, 2025, and has more than 26 years of diplomatic career, with previous postings in Honduras, Venezuela, China, Iraq, Turkey, Costa Rica, and Thailand.
Pettus, for his part, is an Air Force officer who graduated from the Military Academy in 1994 and is a combat pilot with over 2,700 flight hours.
Served as acting commander of SOUTHCOM from November 2024 to February 2026, when Navy General Francis L. Donovan took over permanent command. Since then, Pettus has served as his second-in-command.
The meeting is part of a growing pattern of coordination between U.S. diplomacy in Havana and the military apparatus of SOUTHCOM.
In January 2025, Hammer met with the then head of Southern Command, Admiral Alvin Holsey, in Doral, Florida, to discuss the situation in Cuba.
In May of this year, Hammer participated in a key conference alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and General Donovan at SOUTHCOM's headquarters, also in Doral.
The most significant milestone in this dynamic occurred last May 29, when General Donovan and Cuban General Roberto Legrá Sotolongo met at the perimeter of the Guantanamo Naval Base, marking the first meeting between military leaders of both countries in recent memory.
SOUTHCOM has publicly described the Cuban regime as "a corrosive element in Latin America" and has established three priorities regarding the island: to defend the embassy in Havana, to protect the Guantanamo base, and to respond to a potential mass migration.
In March 2026, Perrin and his wife attended religious services at the Basilica of San Francisco de Asís in Old Havana as a gesture of solidarity with the Cubans and political prisoners on the island.
The meeting between Perrin and Pettus reflects that the coordination between U.S. diplomacy and military command regarding Cuba remains active, at a time when bilateral relations are undergoing a phase of preliminary contacts without concrete commitments.
Filed under: