Fact Check: Does evidence support Marco Rubio’s claims about spy bases in Cuba?

WASHINGTON, DC: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is once again alleging that Cuba is allowing foreign spy or military bases, including Russian and Chinese operations, to function on its territory against the United States. He has repeated these claims for years, while critics say he uses them to justify hardline US policies toward Havana. Let’s fact-check the claim.

Claim: Cuba is hosting foreign intelligence facilities, says Rubio

Marco Rubio repeated unverified claims that Cuba is hosting foreign intelligence facilities.

Speaking on Fox News, he said, “These people in charge aren’t just economically incompetent. They have rolled out the welcome mat to adversaries of the United States to operate within Cuban territory against our national interests with impunity. We are not going to have a foreign military or intelligence or security apparatus operating with impunity 90 miles off the shores of the United States.”

Rubio has made similar assertions for decades, but they have never been supported by credible evidence, and they have often gone unchallenged by major media interviews.

In January, an executive order linked to an oil blockade claimed that “Cuba hosts Russia’s largest overseas signals intelligence facility.”

Fact Check: Former CIA analyst Fulton Armstrong dismissed Rubio's claims 

Cuba did once host a Russian intelligence facility, but it was closed more than two decades ago, and there is no evidence that it is still operational. The allegation also conflicts with earlier political narratives, which more frequently claimed that Cuba was hosting Chinese, rather than Russian, installations.

An investigation by Belly of the Beast found no evidence of Chinese intelligence bases in Cuba.

Former CIA analyst Fulton Armstrong also dismissed such claims, describing a Washington think tank report as “an interesting compilation of rumors and old speculation,” and stating, “There’s no evidence that the Chinese are present there.”

Rubio has also advanced other contested claims in support of stricter policies toward Cuba, including asserting that the United States has taken “nothing punitive” against the country and suggesting that Cuba’s fuel shortages stem from a desire for free oil rather than from the effects of US restrictions.

Trump makes a joking remark about military against against Cuba

President Donald Trump on Friday, May 1 made a joking remark about the possibility of military action against Cuba after the conclusion of the war in Iran.

Speaking at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches, he said, “Cuba’s got problems. On the way back from Iran, we’ll have one of our big, maybe the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier — the biggest in the world — we’ll have that come in, stop about 100 yards offshore, and they’ll say, ‘Thank you very much. We give up.’”

On the same day, Trump signed an executive order that expanded sanctions on Cuba, continuing a months-long effort aimed at pressuring the Cuban government to implement reforms. He has also repeatedly issued threats suggesting potential military action against the Caribbean nation.