The CIA published on its official Instagram account this Saturday a seven-step guide in Spanish specifically aimed at Cuban citizens who wish to contact the agency safely and anonymously, in what analysts describe as an unprecedented escalation of U.S. pressure on the Havana regime.
The message accompanying the CIA's post on Instagram is explicit: «The CIA wants to know the truth about Cuba, and we are looking for trustworthy individuals who know and can communicate this truth to us. Your information may be more valuable than you think».
The guide arrives a day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio published a virtually identical call on his X account, urging Cubans to collaborate "discreetly with the CIA" to create positive change on the island.
Analysts note that the coordinated and public action between the State Department and the CIA would mark the first time in history that a Secretary of State openly calls for the recruitment of informants in a foreign country through social media.
The immediate context is the rally that President Donald Trump held on Friday in Fort Myers, Florida, where he joked about sending military ships about 46 meters off the Cuban coast and announced that he would send Rubio to "close the deal" with Havana.
The CIA guide provides detailed instructions on how to proceed: use a device not linked to the identity of the contact, browse in incognito mode, create a disposable email account with a U.S. or allied provider, and delete the browsing history when finished.
In the realm of virtual private networks (VPNs), the agency is categorical: «Use a VPN service provider and a VPN server that are not located in Cuba, Russia, Iran, China, or any other country considered hostile towards the U.S.»
For those who decide to take the step, the agency requests that they include in their message the city and country they are in, their job position, their level of access to relevant information, and secure contact details.
This public offensive falls within a sustained pressure that Washington has intensified throughout 2026.
In May, the CIA director John Ratcliffe made a surprise visit to Havana—reportedly the second visit by a director of the agency to Cuba since 1959—where he met with the Minister of the Interior Lázaro Álvarez Casas and Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, security advisor and grandson of Raúl Castro.
In August, the New York Times revealed the creation of a secret CIA task force dedicated exclusively to Cuba, raised to "Priority 1" status, on the same level as China, Iran, and Russia, with the aim of exploiting divisions within the regime's elite.
Despite all those contacts and pressures, the negotiations remain at a standstill: the regime rejected a proposal for assistance linked to energy privatizations, and the Cuban charge d'affaires in Washington specified that the existing contacts do not constitute formal negotiations.
The regime's response to the CIA's call was one of mockery. The Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío wrote on X that there must be "a lot of desperation or poverty" in the CIA for them to have to "sell their offerings like toothpaste".
The chancellor Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, for his part, warned: «On our coasts, there are beautiful beaches, but also dog tooth».
From the opposite side, the Cuban-American congressman Carlos A. Giménez celebrated the initiative with a strong statement: "The regime in Havana must be relegated to the dustbin of history, and I know that day is closer than ever."
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