Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a highly unusual public appeal to Cuban citizens on Friday, inviting them to partner with the CIA through a post on the social platform X.
“The disappointment of failed promises, corruption, and the privileged lives of only a few; seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discrete partnership with the CIA,” Rubio wrote in the post.
The message breaks sharply with longstanding diplomatic norms by making intelligence recruitment part of official public discourse rather than keeping such operations behind closed doors.
Rubio’s post is believed to mark the first time a sitting U.S. Secretary of State has openly called for foreign agent recruitment through social media.
The post did not name a specific operation or outline what cooperation with the CIA would involve, leaving significant details about the initiative unexplained.
AFP reported that the post appeared to confirm active CIA operations inside Cuba, a country with a long and well-documented history of U.S. covert activity, including the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.
The U.S. has previously used unconventional outreach to encourage intelligence sharing, including a 2023 CIA campaign on Telegram targeting residents of Russia.
Rubio’s social media appeal came shortly after President Trump told a rally in Fort Myers, Florida, that U.S. warships could potentially intervene in Cuba on their way back from the Iran war.
Trump’s rhetoric around Cuba has grown steadily more aggressive throughout the year, with the president saying in March that “Cuba is next” after the Iran war and that he would have the “honor” of taking over the country.
Cuba has faced severe blackouts and supply shortages as the Trump administration has intensified pressure on Havana through sanctions and an oil blockade, conditions Rubio last month described as those of a “failed state.”
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants and a former U.S. senator for Florida, has long advocated for a harder-line American approach toward the communist government in Havana.
Whether Trump intends to act on his repeated threats of military intervention in Cuba remains uncertain, and no formal policy announcement has accompanied the escalating public statements.
