New State Department Report Revives Explosive

White House press podium with microphones and two American flags — Photo: Maxx-Studio / Shutterstock

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress that Cuba has spent more than six decades helping arm and train left-wing radical groups aimed at the United States, a claim now baked into a formal State Department report on Havana’s activities.

Story Snapshot

Rubio testified Cuba has backed violent leftist groups, including Colombia’s ELN and FARC dissidents, for decades.
A 100-page State Department report accuses Cuba of recruiting American activists and fueling left-wing terrorism on U.S. soil.
Rubio says Cuba still hosts spy facilities for China and Russia, though independent reports dispute parts of that claim.
The dispute feeds a pattern going back decades of U.S. officials making tough Cuba claims without full public proof.

Rubio Tells Senate Cuba Armed Regional Terror Groups

Rubio testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 2 that “almost all radical, violent, leftist terrorist groups in the Western Hemisphere have relied at some point on support from Cuba.” He named Colombia’s National Liberation Army and FARC dissidents directly, tying Havana to armed movements across Latin America for generations.

Rubio also told senators Cuba still runs intelligence facilities for China and Russia on its soil. He called this an ongoing national security threat to the United States, not a Cold War relic, and used it to argue for keeping heavy pressure on Havana’s government.

State Department Report Names American Activists

A separate State Department report released in July went further, calling Cuba the “capital of 21st-century communism.” It claims Havana ran a “campaign of subversion” that reached “the highest reaches of the US government” and helped train generations of American activists. Cuba’s embassy in Washington called the accusations lies and accused the U.S. of cruelty toward the island’s people.

Outside groups that track Cuba’s history back Rubio’s broader point. One review says Cuba ran terrorist training camps for decades, supplied arms and explosives, and shared intelligence through drug-trafficking networks tied to armed groups across the hemisphere. Congressional testimony from over a decade ago made similar claims, calling Cuba a global security threat despite its small size.

Old Claims Resurface With New Urgency

This is not the first time a Cuba spy-base claim has surfaced. Rubio made a similar charge about a Russian facility during a 2016 presidential debate, and critics note the claim has never come with public satellite proof or on-the-ground verification. A Congressional Research Service brief says a U.S. think tank identified four possible Chinese spy sites using satellite images, but stops short of confirming an active base.

One case gives Rubio’s broader argument real teeth. Manuel Rocha, a former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, was arrested and charged with spending more than 40 years as a paid Cuban agent, one of the biggest spy scandals tied to Havana this century. The U.S. re-added Cuba to its state sponsors of terrorism list in 2021, citing shelter for American fugitives and armed Colombian rebel leaders.

Researchers who study U.S.-Cuba relations say this fits an old pattern. Officials with strong anti-communist records, often from Florida, have long made dramatic Cuba claims during moments of political tension, sometimes without releasing the underlying evidence to the public. Analysts also note the Lourdes intelligence facility Russia once ran in Cuba reportedly closed in 2001, a detail rarely mentioned when the spy-base claim resurfaces.

For voters worn out by government spin from both parties, the real question is not whether Cuba has a troubled history, it clearly does, but whether officials are giving citizens the full, verified picture or just the parts that support a chosen policy. Rubio’s push for regime change may be justified. It deserves evidence the public can actually check.