CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officials in Havana on Thursday, according to a CIA official and a statement from the Cuban government.<\/p>\n
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Ratcliffe met with Cuba\u2019s minister of interior, the head of the Cuban intelligence service and Raulito Rodriguez Castro, a government official who is the grandson of former President Ra\u00fal Castro, according to the CIA official.<\/p>\n
The CIA official said that Ratcliffe was there \u201cto personally deliver President Trump\u2019s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CIA official added that Ratcliffe and the Cuban officials discussed \u201cintelligence cooperation, economic stability, and security issues, all against the backdrop that Cuba can no longer be a safe haven for adversaries in the Western Hemisphere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuba said it provided information that \u201cmade it possible to categorically demonstrate that Cuba does not constitute a threat to U.S. national security.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuba also said that there were no \u201clegitimate reasons to include it on the list of countries that allegedly sponsor terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Biden administration removed Cuba<\/a> from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism in January 2025, but President Donald Trump reinstated that designation on his first day in office of his second term.<\/p>\n The Ratcliffe meeting comes as Cuba faces an energy crisis after the U.S. military in January arrested the president of Venezuela, a country that was a key Cuban ally and source of oil. <\/p>\n The Trump administration has deployed a full-court press on the Cuban government, but Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with the Cuban government\u2019s ability to maintain power, officials told NBC News in a report published Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Cuban government said in Thursday\u2019s statement that the meetings were held because of a request by the U.S. government. <\/p>\n The State Department said in a statement Wednesday that the U.S. is prepared to give $100 million in \u201cdirect assistance to the Cuban people\u201d \u2014 which Cuba\u2019s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, called a first.<\/p>\n But the State Department statement<\/a> was critical of Cuba\u2019s government and called it a \u201ccorrupt regime.\u201d<\/p>\n