Spy agencies rarely advertise. On Friday, though, Washington’s top diplomat did exactly that. Secretary of State Marco Rubio used a post on X to tell Cubans frustrated with their government that the moment for change had arrived and that they could pursue it through what he called a “discrete partnership” with the CIA. Critics quickly noted he probably meant “discreet”.
The agency amplified the appeal within hours. It shared the message, added a Spanish version and released a short video explaining how would-be informants should reach out. Its advice: walk into an American diplomatic building if that can be done safely; otherwise go online only through a VPN and a private browser window, using a throwaway email address, and mention your town, occupation and what kind of access you have.
The timing was no accident. Earlier the same day Donald Trump, rallying supporters in South Florida ahead of the midterms, mused that US warships returning from the Iran conflict might pause just off the Cuban coast before Rubio arrived “to finish up the deal”. Cuban-American voters in the state are a key audience for that kind of message.
Havana answered with sarcasm. Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío said the US had resorted to recruiting spies in public and joked that the agency now had to market itself like toothpaste. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez warned that the island’s shoreline, beautiful as it is, also hides jagged rock waiting for anyone arriving with hostile intent.
Pressure on the island has been building all year. A de facto US fuel blockade has been in place since January, Florida prosecutors have just issued an arrest warrant for 95-year-old former leader Raúl Castro, and a state-run Cuban bank was hit with new sanctions last week. Ordinary Cubans are paying the price with blackouts, scarce medicine and long queues for bread. Given the CIA’s past on the island, including the failed Bay of Pigs landing in 1961, the open call is likely to deepen suspicion in Havana rather than win recruits.
