The Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla published a message on X this Saturday to respond to the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who two days earlier chaired an international conference on leftist terrorism in Washington, where he specifically pointed out the Cuban regime as its main global sponsor.
In his post on social media X, Rodríguez reversed the accusation and resorted to the usual playbook of the regime: historical victimization, counteraccusation, and evasion of specific allegations.
The chancellor stated that Rubio "intentionally overlooks the protection offered in U.S. territory to those who finance, organize, incite, and train for terrorist acts against Cuba, primarily in the state of Florida, coincidentally, where he himself comes from."
Rodríguez repeated the regime's official figures, without any possibility of independent verification: 3,478 Cubans killed and 2,099 with disabilities attributed to "terrorists protected by the U.S. government," as well as more than 600 supposed assassination attempts against Fidel Castro "orchestrated and funded even by the CIA."
The chancellor also referred to the incident in February 2026, when a vessel registered in Florida was intercepted in Cuban waters near Cayo Falcones, in Villa Clara, with ten people on board carrying assault rifles, bulletproof vests, and incendiary devices. The operation resulted in four deaths and six arrests. Rodríguez asked rhetorically, "How was it possible that a terrorist command, armed with military weaponry and powerful explosives, was able to prepare, train, and set sail for Cuba just a few months ago with complete freedom?"
The message concluded with another rhetorical question: "Who are the real terrorists?" This phrase encapsulates the regime's communication strategy in response to every pressure from Washington: redirecting attention without addressing the accusations.
The immediate trigger was the ministerial conference that Rubio chaired on Wednesday, with representatives from over 70 countries, in which the Secretary of State stated that "the extensive network of intelligence and ideology of the Cuban regime helped build the extreme left in our country and in our hemisphere, and remains inextricably linked to the extreme left groups and movements both within and beyond the West."
Rodríguez's response is not an isolated incident, but part of a sustained verbal escalation throughout 2026. On July 15, he described the conference as "McCarthyite" and based on "lies." On July 2, he called Rubio "a liar," "dishonest, and mendacious" in an interview with CNN en Español. On July 1, he warned that any U.S. military action against Cuba would result in a "bloodbath."
The Deputy Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío added his own interpretation, describing the ministerial conference as a “smokescreen” to conceal the unfavorable electoral climate for the Republicans.
What the regime omits in all this rhetoric is Cuba's documented history as a sponsor of armed groups: the country was on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism from 1982 until 2015, was reinstated by Trump in 2021, removed by Biden, and re-added on January 20, 2025, the same day Trump resumed the presidency. Reports from the State Department confirm that Cuba has provided shelter and logistical support to members of the FARC and the ELN, and that the ELN has representatives in Havana.
Throughout 2026, the Trump administration has imposed more than 240 new sanctions against Cuban entities, including the Rapid Response Brigades, the Ministry of Tourism, MINFAR, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, and ICAP, as well as personal sanctions against President Miguel Díaz-Canel and relatives of Raúl Castro.
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