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

HAVANA — CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officers together with Raúl Castro’s grandson throughout a high-level go to to the island Thursday, Cuban and U.S. officers stated.

Ratcliffe met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Inside Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas and the top of Cuban intelligence companies, and mentioned intelligence cooperation, financial stability and safety points. A CIA official confirmed the conferences to the AP.

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

An official assertion from Cuba’s authorities famous that Thursday’s assembly “took place … against a backdrop of complex bilateral relations.”

Whereas the U.S. burdened that Cuba can’t proceed to be a “safe haven for adversaries in the Western Hemisphere,” the Cuban delegation insisted that the island presents no risk to U.S. safety. Cuban officers additionally took difficulty with the nation’s continued inclusion on the U.S. record of state sponsors of terrorism.

Rodríguez Castro beforehand secretly met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of a Caribbean Neighborhood summit in St. Kitts in February. Whereas he is by no means occupied a authorities put up, he served as his grandfather’s bodyguard and later as head of Cuba’s equal of the Secret Service.

U.S. and Cuban officers additionally met earlier this yr in Cuba. The continued conferences between U.S. and Cuban officers mark the primary U.S. authorities flights to land in Cuba apart from on the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay since 2016.

Thursday’s assembly comes weeks after the Cuban authorities confirmed that it had not too long ago met with U.S. officers on the island as tensions between the 2 sides stay excessive over the U.S. vitality blockade of the Caribbean nation and as Cuba’s energy grid has collapsed and vitality to its japanese provinces has been minimize. The U.S. blockade of gasoline to the island has heightened its financial woes, with decreased work hours and meals spoilage as fridges cease working.

Earlier this week, the U.S. State Division reiterated that the U.S. will present Cuba with $100 million in humanitarian help and help for satellite tv for pc web “if the Cuban regime will permit it.”

In late January, Trump threatened tariffs on any nation that sells or provides oil to Cuba. Although Trump additionally has threatened to intervene within the nation, and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel stated not too long ago that his nation was ready to battle if that ought to occur, sources instructed the AP earlier this month that navy motion just isn’t imminent.