Axios reported that Cuba received over 300 military drones from Russia and Iran to possibly use to attack Guantanamo Bay and Key West, FL.
Why it matters: The intelligence — which could become a pretext for U.S. military action — shows the degree to which the Trump administration sees Cuba as a threat because of developments in drone warfare and the presence of Iranian military advisers in Havana, a senior U.S. official said.
- “When we think about those types of technologies being that close, and a range of bad actors from terror groups to drug cartels to Iranians to the Russians, it’s concerning,” the official said.
- “It’s a growing threat.”
According to the report, Cuba has been receiving the drones since 2023. They come with “varying capabilities.”
Cuba has bought even more drones in the past month. A CIA official said Cuba want “to learn about how Iran has resisted” America.
The intelligence reports supposedly claim that Russia and China have placed “high-tech espionage facilities for collecting ‘signals intelligence’ (called SIGINT) in Cuba.”
CIA John Ratcliffe went to Cuba last Thursday. He warned officials not to engage in any hostilities.
Ratcliffe also told them “to scrap their totalitarian government to end crippling U.S. sanctions.”
“Director Ratcliffe made clear that Cuba can no longer serve as a platform for adversaries to advance hostile agendas in our hemisphere,” a CIA official told Axios. “The Western Hemisphere cannot be our adversaries’ playground.”
Cuba has denied the allegations.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accused America of lying “to justify economic sanctions and potential military intervention.”
Rodriguez posted on X:
Without any legitimate excuse whatsoever, the #US government builds, day after day, a fraudulent case to justify the ruthless economic war against the Cuban people and the eventual military aggression.Specific media outlets play along, promoting slanders and leaking insinuations from the U.S. government itself.#Cuba neither threatens nor desires war.It defends peace and prepares itself to confront external aggression in the exercise of the right to legitimate self-defense recognized by the UN Charter.
But does Cuba really pose a threat? The government cannot close the Straits of Florida.
The CIA official admitted that the government isn’t worried about fighter jets because the Pentagon doesn’t even know if the regime has any.
However, Havana is only 90 miles from Key West.
The DOJ already indicted Cuba’s de facto leader Raúl Castro, accusing him of “ordering the 1996 downing of two planes flown by a Miami-based aid group called Brothers to the Rescue.”
Officials will unseal the indictment on Wednesday. A grand jury needs to approve it.
It’s likely Cuba fears America will invade and capture Castro in the same way we took Venezuela dictator Nicolás Maduro.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY