CIA Chief Visits Cuba in Fresh Sign of US Frustration Over Talks

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Central Intelligence Agency John Ratcliffe visited Cuba for talks with top leaders, after people familiar with the matter said the US is growing frustrated over a lack of progress on getting the island to open its economy and political system.

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Leading a US delegation, Ratcliffe conveyed to Cuban officials that the Trump administration wished to negotiate with the communist government, but only if it made changes, an agency official said Thursday.

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During Ratcliffe’s visit, the two sides discussed economic and security issues as well as possible cooperation on intelligence, according to the CIA official, who requested anonymity to provide details on the private conversations. Cuban state media confirmed the meeting.

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The CIA official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Ratcliffe wanted to make clear that Cuba must make fundamental changes. The official didn’t specify what those changes were but said Ratcliffe made clear US President Donald Trump must be taken seriously, citing the example of Venezuela as evidence.

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That was a reference to Trump’s decision to order the capture of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro in January.

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US negotiators are struggling to navigate among what they see as competing factions including the Castro family, the military, the Communist Party bureaucracy and descendants of other revolutionary leaders, according to the people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.

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A diplomatic breakthrough has remained elusive despite multiple negotiating sessions in recent months and Trump’s policy of imposing drastic constraints on the nation’s energy supply that amounts to a de facto blockade. The Cuban government said this week that it had now run completely out of diesel and fuel oil for its aging power plants.

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At the same time, the US is escalating sanctions aimed at the Cuban elites. Last week’s targeting of Grupo de Administración Empresarial SA, the business conglomerate known as Gaesa that’s run by Cuba’s military, mirrors the strategy the US pursued in Venezuela when it began to seize oil tankers that benefited Maduro and his family. 

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Attention now turns to other international companies that do business in Cuba, including Spanish hotel operators, after the US signaled they would have about a month to wind down any operations with the military conglomerate.

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Asked to comment for this story, a White House official pointed to Trump’s remarks this week that Cuba is “a failed nation” that’s been run badly for many years. The president has alternated in recent months between touting talks and suggesting that the US military could “stop by” the island after the end of the war with Iran. He said Tuesday that the nation is asking for help, adding that the US will make a deal with Cuba “at the right time.”

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Cuba’s Embassy in Washington didn’t respond to a request for comment.

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Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio want to remove from power Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and the Castro family, which has controlled the country since Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl overthrew the Batista regime in 1959, according to a person familiar with the thinking, who asked not to be identified to discuss sensitive deliberations.