The U.S. should invite Cubans to cooperate with the CIA because Cuba's long record of espionage against America makes counter-recruitment justified and strategically valuable
Source: "Rubio's CIA invite challenges Cuba's long history of US espionage | Fox News." October 25, 2026. www.foxnews.com
The Gist
Cuba has spent decades planting spies inside the U.S. government, and being poor doesn't make its intelligence service weak. So it makes sense for the U.S. to invite Cubans, even regime insiders, to work with the CIA. Doing so could expose Cuban agents, make Havana distrust its own people, and give American leaders better information.
Conclusion
Secretary of State Rubio is right to invite Cubans, including regime insiders, to cooperate with the CIA, and Washington should actively pursue this kind of counterintelligence work against Havana.
Premises
- Cuba's economic weakness does not make it a harmless intelligence adversary, because dictatorships allocate resources to regime protection and espionage rather than to feeding their people.
- Cuban intelligence has a documented record of penetrating the U.S. government, including Ana Belén Montes at the Pentagon, Victor Manuel Rocha at the State Department and National Security Council, the Myers couple, and the Wasp Network, whose operations had deadly consequences.
- Cuban intelligence succeeded by cultivating ideological commitment and steering recruits into trusted positions, so the most damaging agents can be respected insiders whom colleagues would never suspect.
- Regime insiders such as intelligence officers, military officials, and party members may know which Americans Havana has recruited, which foreign services it assists, and who ordered repression, and some may be willing to share that knowledge.
- The invitation also forces Cuban security services to suspect their own ranks, diverting time and manpower from operations against the U.S.
- Better knowledge of Cuban penetration and vulnerabilities helps U.S. counterintelligence and negotiators prevent damage that prosecution cannot undo.
- Havana's accusation of treason is illegitimate, because the regime conflates its own survival with the national interest and does not own Cubans' allegiance.
Assumptions
- Reciprocal espionage and recruitment against a hostile regime is a legitimate and proportionate response to its past espionage.
- Willing volunteers from within the Cuban apparatus exist in meaningful numbers and can be vetted well enough to separate real sources from regime-controlled fabricators.
- Publicly inviting defectors will not backfire by prompting Cuban retaliation, tightened security, or damage to U.S. diplomatic prospects.
- Past cases such as Montes and Rocha show that Cuba still poses a current, significant threat.
- The intelligence gained will be worth the operational and political costs.
- The author's CIA background gives him reliable insight into Cuban capabilities and into what the invitation can achieve.