Rubio Tells Cubans “Now Is the Time,” Invites Them to Partner With the CIA

Written By TNT Staff, Posted on October 25, 2026

Featured photo: El Capitolio in Havana, Cuba. Photo: Virtual-Pano, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent the communist government in Havana a message on Friday that no American official has delivered so plainly in decades. He told Cubans who want change that the moment has come, and that the Central Intelligence Agency wants to help.

“To those who seek to create positive change in Cuba – now is the time,” Rubio wrote on X on Oct. 23. “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.”

The post had passed 6.8 million views by Sunday morning, according to X’s own counter. Hours after Rubio posted, the CIA’s official account quoted it and repeated the message in Spanish: “Aprovecha esta oportunidad de crear el cambio que deseas a través de una asociación discreta con la CIA.”

Trump: “We’ll take care of Cuba”

The post landed the same day President Trump told a rally at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers that Cuba is next on his list once the Iran war is settled.

“We’ll take care of Cuba on our way back from Iran. We’ll do a little stopover,” Trump said, according to a transcript published by Anadolu Agency and video from the AP. He described U.S. warships returning home past the island: “We’ll have one of them stop about 50 yards off the coast. They’ll raise up their hands, and then we’re going to send Marco Rubio in to finish up the deal.”

Neither the White House nor the State Department has said what a “partnership with the CIA” would involve. Rubio’s post did not elaborate.

A regime with nowhere to turn

The Castro regime has survived 67 years by finding a patron. First it was the Soviet Union. Then it was Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, whose Venezuela kept Cuba supplied with cheap oil. In January, U.S. forces seized Maduro. This year, an American oil blockade has choked off fuel, and the island’s grid has collapsed again and again. The AP has reported repeated nationwide blackouts, with outages lasting days and hitting hospitals, transport and food supplies.

Cubans already showed what they think of the regime on July 11, 2021, when thousands took to the streets across the island chanting “Libertad” in the largest protests in decades. The government answered with mass arrests and long prison sentences.

That is the backdrop for Rubio’s post. The son of Cuban immigrants is not talking to the regime. He is talking past it, to the soldiers, officials and ordinary Cubans who keep it running, and telling them they have a friend in Washington if they choose freedom.

A real chance, and a word of caution

For anyone who believes in free people and free markets, a free Cuba 90 miles from Florida would be the best foreign-policy news in a generation. Communism has given Cubans ration books, blackouts, political prisoners and an exodus of the young. A regime that cannot keep the lights on is weaker than it has been at any time since 1959.

Still, two things are worth saying. Cubans’ freedom is not “a deal” to be closed by a secretary of state after a show of force off the Malecón. It is a right, and the change that lasts will be the one Cubans make themselves. And a public invitation to work with an intelligence agency is a serious step. The CIA’s history in the region, from the Bay of Pigs on, is a reason for care, not bravado.

If the regime wants a deal, the terms are simple: free the political prisoners, legalize opposition parties and hold free elections. Until then, Rubio’s message stands. Now is the time.

TNT Staff