CIA director visits Cuba as communist island runs out of oil

AFP | Washington

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The head of the CIA visited Cuba on Thursday, an extraordinary step-up in contact between Washington and Havana as the communist-run island reels from US pressure, declaring that it is out of oil.

The Central Intelligence Agency, at the heart of the decades-long struggle between the United States and Cuba, confirmed a Cuban government statement about Director John Ratcliffe’s visit.

Photos posted by the agency on X showed Ratcliffe alongside several people with blurredout faces meeting with Ramon Romero Curbelo, chief of the intelligence of the Cuban Interior ministry, and other Cuban officials.

The visit comes during a deepening crisis in US-Cuba relations, with the island enduring constant power outages prompted by President Donald Trump’s fuel blockade.

Only one tanker from Russia -- a historic ally of the Cuban authorities -- has got through. And that oil has now “run out,” Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy told state television.

“The impact of the blockade is indeed causing us significant harm...because we are still not receiving fuel.”

Trump has repeatedly signalled that he wants to topple the communist government in Cuba.

According to a report on CBS News, citing unidentified US officials, the Trump administration is also seeking to indict Raul Castro, the 94-year-old brother of the late Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro.

But Cuba framed the Ratcliffe visit as a chance to calm tensions.

The meeting with Ratcliffe took place “in a context marked by the complexity of bilateral relations, with the aim of contributing to the political dialogue between both nations,” a government statement read.