Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

People wait to fill their buckets from a water tanker truck in Havana on March 20, 2026. (Photo by YAMIL LAGE / AFP)

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1784596758777thumbnail-F7m3y2hyWVI-1280x720 (4).jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">People wait to fill their buckets from a water tanker truck in Havana on March 20, 2026.<em> Photo by Yamil Lage/AFP/File</em></span></span></span></div><p>WASHINGTON, United States — A US State Department report on Monday accused Cuban spies of infiltrating the highest levels of government in Washington and aiding &quot;left-wing terrorism&quot; on American soil.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/5/19/cuba-warns-of-bloodbath-if-us-attacks-washington-adds-sanctions-1000?obOrigUrl=true">Cuba warns of &#x27;bloodbath&#x27; if US attacks; Washington adds sanctions</a></div><p>Containing little new information, the report, titled &quot;Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism,&quot; comes as US President Donald Trump pushes to end communist rule of the island while amping up anti-leftist rhetoric at home.</p><p>A months-long pressure campaign has seen Washington effectively impose an oil embargo on Cuba, while issuing economic sanctions against key state-run companies and even indicting the former president, Raul Castro.</p><p>Ahead of US elections in November, Trump and other Republican leaders have meanwhile revived Cold War-style rhetoric portraying left-wing US political figures as a communist &quot;menace.&quot;</p><p>The State Department report alleged that Cuba &quot;has infiltrated the highest reaches of the US government, recruited and cultivated generations of American activists (and) backed an unprecedented wave of left-wing terrorism on American soil.&quot;</p><p>While the allegations represent an escalation in US-Cuba tensions, espionage between the two countries has long been known.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/7/10/cuban-lives-cut-short-as-health-system-flatlines-1615">Cuban lives cut short as health system flatlines</a></div><p>Since the Cold War, the US has made high-profile arrests of Cuban intelligence officers, including the &quot;Cuban Five&quot; who were convicted of infiltrating civil society groups in Florida in the 1990s, and Ana Montes, who spied from a senior position within the Defense Intelligence Agency.</p><p>In more recent cases, State Department intelligence analyst Walter Kendall Myers and former US ambassador to Bolivia Victor Manuel Rocha pled guilty in separate cases to spying for the communist country.</p><p>Meanwhile, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Cuban exiles tried to assassinate late Cuban president and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro more than 600 times, his ex-intelligence chief, Fabian Escalante, once estimated.</p><p>Cuba&#x27;s foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez, in a post on X, called the new report &quot;the latest fallacy from the US State Department.&quot;</p><p>He said it was part of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio&#x27;s effort to create a &quot;pretext for sustaining a cruel and criminal economic war that punishes every Cuban family, as well as his aspiration to launch a military attack on Cuba, for which he is desperately seeking the support of US citizens.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>US THREATENS TAKEOVER OF CUBA </strong></div><div><br/></div><p>The report released Monday made sweeping—if unsubstantiated—allegations that Cuba has cultivated relationships with leftist groups across the world and in the US to drive &quot;overriding resentment and fundamental hatred of the United States and the broader West.&quot;</p><p>The State Department said that the communist country had influenced &quot;a disproportionate share of America&#x27;s most famous and influential extremist movements,&quot; in an effort to &quot;turn America against itself.&quot;</p><p>The report makes the latest downturn in the long-fraught relationship.</p><p>In 2015, then president Barack Obama attempted a rapprochement with the Cuban government, hoping a more diplomatic approach would yield better relations after a half-century of hostility.</p><p>Trump quickly restored a hardline stance in 2017, and—on returning to office in 2025—reinstated Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism on his first day in office.</p><p>Earlier this year, the US military overthrew Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro—a long-time supporter of the Cuban government who provided subsidized energy to the island.</p><p>Since then, the United States has effectively imposed an oil embargo on Cuba that has contributed to multiple nationwide blackouts.</p><p>Trump has repeatedly signaled that the Cuban government could be next after Venezuela to fall to US pressure, and said in June that Washington would be &quot;taking over&quot; the Caribbean island, about 90 miles (145 km) from Florida, &quot;almost immediately.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><strong><br/></strong></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEOS</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5VQAiU1gGas?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2aoaYOid0xo?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>A US State Department report on Monday accused Cuban spies of infiltrating the highest levels of government in Washington and aiding "left-wing terrorism" on American soil.</p>

A US State Department report on Monday accused Cuban spies of infiltrating the highest levels of government in Washington and aiding "left-wing terrorism" on American soil.

US accuses Cuba of sweeping spy campaign, aiding American left

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US accuses Cuba of sweeping spy campaign, aiding American left

Agence France-Presse

Published July 21, 2026 09:20 AM PHT

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Agence France-Presse

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