Miguel Díaz-Canel launched a barrage of accusations on Monday through a thread on X against Secretary of State Marco Rubio, following the publication of a State Department report that accuses the Cuban regime of conducting a campaign of espionage, infiltration, and subversion against the United States for nearly seven decades.
Without mentioning Rubio by name, the Cuban leader described the official as "one of the most corrupt in the current administration, with proven links to drug traffickers and terrorists from Florida."
Díaz-Canel opened the thread with a popular saying: “The thief believes that everyone else is like him.”
Although the Cuban leader did not provide evidence or clarify whom he was referring to, his remarks were aimed at Rubio, who disseminated the report and claimed that the State Department was revealing "the full story of Cuban espionage and subversion" in the United States.
The accusation regarding alleged links with drug traffickers could refer to the case of Orlando Cicilia, the husband of a sister of Rubio, who was arrested during Operation Cobra in 1987 and was convicted in 1989 in a federal drug trafficking case.
Cicilia received a 35-year prison sentence, although he was released early in 2000.
He was identified as an important figure in an organization dedicated to cocaine trafficking that managed up to 75 million dollars. However, that background does not imply Rubio's involvement in his brother-in-law's criminal activities.
A publication from Univision in 2016, based on court documents obtained by Miami New Times, revealed that Rubio lived for about a month with his family in a house owned by Cicilia when he was 14 years old.
The records indicated that the residence was used to store and prepare cocaine. Rubio has repeatedly denied that he or his parents were aware of Cicilia's criminal activities and stated in his autobiography that he was shocked when the arrest occurred.
The trigger for this Monday's thread from Díaz-Canel was the report from the State Department published today under the title “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism”, a document of about 100 pages that accuses the regime of conducting a campaign of espionage, infiltration, ideological subversion, and support for extreme left terrorism against the United States for nearly seven decades.
The text outlines a line of influence between Havana and historical movements such as the Black Panthers and Weather Underground, as well as contemporary organizations and currents associated with Antifa and Black Lives Matter.
The release of the document took place four days after Rubio led a conference on the resurgence of political terrorism in Washington, featuring leaders, experts, and security officials from over 60 countries.
During that meeting, the Department of State released an informative fact sheet stating that far-left actors were responsible for 63% of all recorded anti-government attacks or plots in the United States during 2025.
In his thread, Díaz-Canel described Washington's policy as "transnational neo-McCarthyism" driven by "a clearly fascist current" and stated that this approach "resorts to lies to create pretexts for waging aggressions against Cuba and curbing civil liberties in the U.S."
The Cuban ruler also defended that the island "has never acted to harm the American people, nor has it intended to affect the national security of the U.S.," and portrayed the regime's actions as a defensive response to "successive and endless aggressions."
The thread concluded with the hashtag #CubaNoEsAmenaza, in an effort to counter the accusations contained in the report and the international campaign promoted by Washington against what is termed "radical left terrorism."
It is not the first time that Díaz-Canel has attacked Rubio. In April 2026, he admitted that he had never spoken to him and did not know him personally.
A year earlier, he had described him as a "gray figure for us within the current administration" and had accused him of pushing to tighten sanctions against the Cuban regime.
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