CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Raul Castro’s grandson in Havana, US and Cuban officials say : NPR

FILE – CIA Director John Ratcliffe, accompanied by President Donald Trump, speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, April 6, 2026.

Julia Démarée Nikhinson/AP

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Julia Démarée Nikhinson/AP

HAVANA — CIA Director John Ratcliffe met Thursday with Cuban officials, including the grandson of Raúl Castro, during a high-level visit to the island, Cuban and U.S. officials said.

Ratcliffe met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas and the head of Cuba’s intelligence services, and discussed intelligence cooperation, economic stability and security issues. A CIA official confirmed the meetings to the AP.

Ratcliffe was there “to personally convey President Donald Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to engage seriously on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes,” the CIA official said.

An official statement from the Cuban government said Thursday’s meeting “took place … in a context of complex bilateral relations.”

While the United States stressed that Cuba cannot continue to be a “safe haven for Western Hemisphere adversaries,” the Cuban delegation insisted that the island poses no threat to U.S. security. Cuban officials also took issue with the nation’s continued inclusion on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Rodríguez Castro had already met secretly with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the Caribbean Community summit in St. Kitts in February. Although he never held a government position, he served as his grandfather’s bodyguard and then as head of Cuba’s equivalent of the secret service.

U.S. and Cuban officials also met earlier this year in Cuba. The ongoing meetings between U.S. and Cuban officials mark the first U.S. government flights to land in Cuba other than the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay since 2016.

Thursday’s meeting comes weeks after the Cuban government confirmed it recently met with U.S. officials on the island, as tensions between the two sides remain high due to the U.S. energy blockade against the Caribbean country, and as Cuba’s power grid has collapsed and energy supplies to its eastern provinces have been cut off. The US blockade on the island’s fuel supply has worsened its economic woes, with reduced working hours and food losses due to the shutdown of refrigerators.

Earlier this week, the US State Department reiterated that the US would provide Cuba with $100 million in humanitarian aid and satellite internet support “if the Cuban regime allows it.”

In late January, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on any country selling or supplying oil to Cuba. Although Trump has also threatened to intervene in the country and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel recently said his country was prepared to fight if that were to happen, sources told the AP earlier this month that military action was not imminent.