Cuban officials meet with CIA director after country says it has run out of fuel – National
CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officials, including Raul Castro’s grandson, during his visit to the island on Thursday, Cuban and US officials said.
Ratcliffe met with Raulito Rodriguez Castro, Interior Minister Lazaro Alvarez Casas and the head of Cuba’s intelligence and discussed intelligence cooperation, economic stability and security issues. A CIA official confirmed the meetings to the AP.
Ratcliffe was there “to personally deliver President Donald Trump’s message that the United States is willing to negotiate on economic and security issues only, but only if Cuba makes significant changes.” According to official reports, this meeting was a forum for Cuba to present evidence that asserts that the country is not a threat to the security of the United States,” said a CIA official.
An official statement from the Cuban government noted that Thursday’s meeting “took place … against the backdrop of complex bilateral relations.”
While the US insisted that Cuba cannot continue to be a “safe haven for enemies in the Western Hemisphere,” the Cuban delegation insisted that the island poses no threat to US security.
Cuban officials also opposed the nation’s continued inclusion on the US list of sponsors of terrorism.
Rodríguez Castro previously met privately with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the Caribbean Community summit in St. Kitts in February. Although he never held a government position, he served as his grandfather’s bodyguard and later became the head of Cuba’s Secret Service.
Thursday’s meeting comes a few weeks after the Cuban government confirmed that it had recently met with US officials on the island as tensions between the two sides remain high over the US blockade of the Caribbean country.
The island’s national power station suffered a major failure early Thursday, knocking out power to the island’s eastern provinces, authorities said, as residents in the capital, Havana, faced ongoing power outages.
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The state-run Electric Union said the collapse knocked out power in all eastern states from Guantánamo to Ciego de Ávila, saying workers were working to restore power, but did not say how long it would take.
A day earlier, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel described the energy situation as “tense” after the Russian tanker ran out of oil in late March. Cuba produces less than 40% of the fuel it needs to develop its economy.
“We have absolutely no fuel oil, absolutely no diesel,” said Vicente de la O Levy, Cuba’s energy and mining minister, on Wednesday night.
Russia announced plans to send a second fuel tanker to Cuba in early April. According to Russian news reports, the oil tanker left the Russian Baltic port of Vysotsk in January, but got stuck in the same place in the Atlantic Ocean a few weeks ago.
The blackout in Havana, where authorities have been restoring power, extended to 24 hours in a row on Thursday.
The US oil embargo on the island has exacerbated economic problems, with reduced working hours and food spoilage as freezers stop working. In some cases, hospitals have canceled surgeries.
Earlier this week, the U.S. State Department reiterated that the U.S. will provide Cuba with $100 million in humanitarian aid and satellite internet support “if the Cuban government will allow it.”
Cuba’s electricity grid is crumbling, but the government has also threatened to lift US sanctions after Trump in January warned of tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba. The Trump administration has demanded that Cuba release political prisoners and move toward political and economic freedom in order to end the sanctions.
Although Trump has threatened to intervene in the country, and Díaz-Canel recently said his country is prepared to fight if that happens, a source told the AP earlier this month that military action is not imminent.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
