The Trump administration raised Cuba to "Priority 1" status within the National Intelligence Priority Framework, placing it on the same level as China, Iran, and Russia, as revealed this Wednesday by The New York Times.
After this event, the CIA secretly created a task force dedicated exclusively to the island, the newspaper reported.
The unit, whose existence was kept secret, has the authority to swiftly redirect money, personnel, and technical support to the island, and includes case officers, analysts, cyber operations specialists, and covert influence experts, the report emphasizes.
The declared objective of the task force is, according to the New York newspaper, "to create divisions within the Cuban political elite and to facilitate the replacement of hardliner officials with more pragmatic figures willing to negotiate with Trump's demands."
The mandate for unity, however, has explicit limits: it does not have authorization to carry out lethal operations and, unlike the efforts of the Bay of Pigs era, it also lacks organized Cuban partners on the ground, it clarifies.
CIA analysts are also examining new intelligence flows for indications of money movements and business activities of the regime's leaders.
The revelation comes one day after Politico reported the increase of spies and intelligence assets in Cuba, including over 150 hours of aerial reconnaissance missions with P-8A Poseidon, RC-135V Rivet Joint, and MQ-4C Triton aircraft since February of this year.
Sources cited by Politico warned that this deployment "could support everything from intensified intelligence operations to potential military planning," although they clarified that no military action has been approved or is imminent.
The establishment of the task force represents the culmination of a sustained escalation throughout 2026.
In May, the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, traveled to Havana on an unusual high-level visit —the first by a head of that agency in decades— to personally deliver Trump's message: Washington would only discuss economic and security matters if Cuba made "fundamental changes," including economic and political reforms, and ended Russian and Chinese intelligence operations on the island.
Ratcliffe met on that occasion with Cuba's Minister of the Interior, Lázaro Álvarez Casas, and the head of Cuban intelligence. The regime responded by presenting what it described as evidence that the island does not pose a threat to U.S. national security.
Days after that visit, the U.S. imposed sanctions on high-ranking Cuban officials and the Intelligence Directorate, known as DGI or G2.
In July, the State Department published a 107-page report categorizing Cuba as a structural threat to the national security of the U.S., and senior Pentagon officials examined possible courses of action regarding the island.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the main proponent of this policy within the administration, has deemed Cuba a "top priority" and has advocated for using "all conventional tools," including intelligence, to pressure the regime in Havana.
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