Marco Rubio Says Cuba Has Always Posed A National Security Threat

News Americas, HOMESTEAD, Florida, May 21, 2026: US Secretary of State, Cuban American Marco Rubio, delivered some of his most direct public remarks yet on Cuba earlier today, telling reporters at Miami Homestead Airport that Cuba has consistently posed a national security threat to the United States.

“Cuba not only has weapons that they’ve acquired from Russia and China over the years, but they also host Russian and Chinese intelligence presence in their country not far from where we’re standing right now,” Rubio said at a press availability at Homestead, as quoted in remarks released by the State Department on May 21, 2026.

The remarks came one day after the US Department of Justice unsealed a superseding indictment charging former Cuban President Raul Castro with the alleged murders of four Americans in the 1996 shoot-down of two unarmed civilian aircraft over international waters.

Cuba A “Failed State Run By Friends Of Our Adversaries”

Rubio did not mince words about Washington’s view of the Cuban government. When asked whether Cuba poses a national security threat to the United States, the Secretary of State declined to address specific military matters but offered a sweeping characterization of the threat.

“Cuba has consistently posed a threat to the national security of the United States,” Rubio said, as quoted in the State Department transcript. “And the other thing that poses a threat to the national security of the United States is to have a failed state 90 miles from our shores run by friends of our adversaries.”

Rubio also accused Cuba of being “one of the leading sponsors of terrorism in the entire region,” pointing specifically to armed groups operating out of Colombia that he alleged have received “full support from this regime.”

$100 Million In Humanitarian Aid Held Up

In a notable exchange, Rubio was asked whether the Trump administration was offended that Cuba had not yet accepted a US offer of $100 million in humanitarian aid.

Rubio said Cuba had indicated acceptance but that the terms remained unresolved – specifically because Washington refuses to allow aid to flow through GAESA, the Cuban military’s commercial company, which Rubio accused of diverting humanitarian assistance for profit.

“We’re not going to do humanitarian aid that falls into the hands of their military company that they have, and then they take that stuff and they sell it at the dollar stores and put the money in their pocket,” Rubio said, as quoted in the State Department transcript. “That’s not going to work that way.”

Rubio said he met with the Catholic Church in Rome weeks ago to arrange alternative distribution, and that a network of NGOs already operating inside Cuba is prepared to handle distribution outside of regime control. He noted that approximately $3 million of a previous $6 million humanitarian allocation was successfully distributed inside Cuba after a hurricane through the Catholic Church, while the remaining $3 million has been held up by the Cuban government’s permitting process – though Rubio indicated that permission for the remaining funds may have been granted within the last few days.

The Broader Context

Rubio’s remarks at Homestead – a military installation and the site of the Air Force’s Homestead Air Reserve Base, located approximately 180 miles from Cuba – carry deliberate symbolism. The location, the timing one day after the Castro indictment, and the explicit references to Russian and Chinese intelligence presence in Cuba collectively signal an escalating US posture toward Havana.

The remarks follow a week of extraordinary Cuba-related developments: the May 18 designation of 11 Cuban regime officials under sanctions, the May 20 unsealing of the Raul Castro murder indictment, and now Rubio’s explicit public statements linking Cuba to Russian and Chinese intelligence operations on US doorstep.

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