3 min readNew DelhiMay 15, 2026 10:34 AM IST
CIA director John Ratcliffe met Cuban officials in Havana to restore ties between the US and the island nation, the Cuban government said. The meeting came against the backdrop of widespread protests across Cuba owing to rampant power outages induced by a US blockade of energy supplies to the communist-ruled Caribbean island.
The meeting was held “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 said.
The meeting took place a day after protests erupted across the Cuban capital following an announcement from the country’s Energy Minister that the island had completely run out of diesel and fuel oil.
People drive a classic American car through a barricade set up by residents protesting against prolonged power outages in Havana, Cuba. (AP Photo)“We have absolutely no fuel and absolutely no diesel,” the Energy Minister, Vicente de la O Levy, said on Wednesday on state media, as quoted by the Guardian. He added that the national grid was in a “critical” state, and admitting “we have no reserves”. Fuel oil is a product derived from crude oil distillation used to generate heat or power.
Following O Levy’s announcement, protestors took to the streets in Havana, shouting “turn on the lights”, banging pots and pans, and setting fire to piles of rubbish.
The statement on Thursday (local time) said talks with the US “made it possible to demonstrate categorically that Cuba does not constitute a threat to US national security, nor are there any legitimate reasons to include it on the list of countries that allegedly sponsor terrorism”.
Havana said it “has never supported any hostile activity against the United States, nor will it permit actions against any other nation to be carried out from Cuba,” referring to allegations of a Chinese presence.
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In January, US President Donald Trump imposed an effective fuel blockade on Cuba through an executive order from that threatened punitive tariffs on countries supplying fuel to the island, prompting blackouts lasting as long as 22 hours or more. Since the move, Trump has periodically mused about the US taking over the island.
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