Red roses for the CIA in Havana

A CIA director appeared in Havana alongside Cuba’s intelligence leadership, including Ramon Romero Curbelo of the Ministry of the Interior. Curbelo’s public image is tied to military events and official delegations, usually within larger groups. A CIA-published photo shows Curbelo presiding over a table with socialist-themed decor, surrounded by Cuban officials, while the CIA director stands at attention. The scene emphasizes what is absent: Cuban people. The moment is framed as a tightening stage where the United States moves toward consuming a menu prepared under Castroism. Prior violence in Venezuela and the lack of resistance in Cuba suggest Castroism is not collapsing, instead seeking time and a managed, nonviolent form of takeover.

"Seeing John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, in Havana might be less surprising than seeing Ramon Romero Curbelo, head of the Intelligence Directorate of Cuba's Ministry of the Interior. His face had appeared on television before, but not in connection with his official position, and it is his position that gives such a face its expression. Images of him can be found at military events on the island, or in official delegations to Nicaragua and Vietnam, though always as part of a larger group."

"In the photo the CIA published on its X account, Romero presides over a table dotted with socialist kitsch: bouquets of red roses, water bottles from small businesses, and white tablecloths from a workers' cafeteria. Beside him are several Cuban officials, and in front of them, as if facing the entire communist platoon single-handedly, stands Ratcliffe, at attention. It is a bleak scene. What is being served at that table and what cannot be seen is the Cuban people."

"Curbelo's hand invites his visitors to sit down and tells them they may eat. The stage has been closing in, and the United States is about to devour a menu that Castroism, chopping away here and there, diligently prepared for it, although Curbelo, in reality, does not seem entirely happy, but rather annoyed at having to share what until now they had been snacking on all by themselves."

"The fact that the CIA reached the Cuban intelligence stronghold without firing a shot, after having previously killed 32 Cuban soldiers in Venezuela stupidly sacrificed to defend a petty tyrant whom his own people had already betrayed suggests that Castroism has no intention of self-destructing. They won't wrap themselves in a flag and wait for the Marines on the Malecon; instead, they will try to buy more time, scraping together a way out for themselves, while meekly accepting what we might call a soft invasion"

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