On Oct. 23, Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Cubans to form “discrete partnership[s]” with the CIA, urging them to become informants for the CIA and help lay the basis for removing the government. Almost immediately, the CIA followed with its own Spanish-language message providing a seven-step instructional video directed to Cubans who wish to contact the agency “safely and anonymously.” The video says, “The CIA wants to know the truth about Cuba, and we are looking for trustworthy individuals who know and can communicate this truth to us. Your information may be more valuable than you think.” The CIA’s instructions are detailed, telling Cubans how to proceed, how to protect their identity, what kind of device to use, how to create a disposable email account, steps for using a virtual private network (VPN) not linked to Cuba, Russia, China or Iran, etc.
The next day, Oct. 24, the commander of the U.S. Southern Command, Gen. Francis Donovan, issued an English-language statement on X which repeats Rubio’s message: “Cuba’s future belongs to those who act. Seize the moment and build the change you want to see. No more broken promises, rampant corruption, or tolerating an elite class living in luxury while the citizens are ignored. Now is the time.” The post quoted the Spanish-language CIA post mentioned above.
In a posting to Facebook the same day, Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio inserted some reality into this “opportunity” the CIA and Marco Rubio are offering Cubans. “On one hand, this is pretty pathetic,” Fernandez wrote. “Now the U.S. is resorting to public recruitment drives by the CIA. There must be a great deal of desperation or poverty within the Agency’s ranks if it has to market its job offers like toothpaste.” But the truth about the CIA is well known, he said, having been investigated by the U.S. Senate itself, which has documented its role in coups d’état, political assassinations, terrorist actions, its economic and political subversion and interference in the internal affairs of just about any country. Yet it’s Cuba that the U.S. government portrays as a threat.
Fernandez pointed out that the U.S. has participated in more wars of aggression than any other nation in modern history, with high rates of deaths and destruction. Cuba is a nation of peace, he repeated. Its foreign policy is based on seeking cooperation and solidarity, as the international community understands. If the U.S. government would stop lying to its population and constantly frightening them, then [Americans] would be able to understand this with tranquility and calm.
