This is the third in a series of CubaBriefs fact checking the claims made by Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel during his appearance on Meet the Press broadcast on April 12, 2026.
Fact Checking Miguel Diaz-Canel’s Meet the Press appearance
“Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it.” – Jonathan Swift The Art of Political Lying (1710).
Fact-check: Cuba’s dictatorship has taken offensive actions against the United States, and interfered in its internal affairs over more than six decades.
The historical record—drawn from U.S. court records, declassified FBI/DIA documents, State Department reports, and independent scholarship—shows repeated, deliberate Cuban interference: hosting global revolutionary coordination (Tricontinental), direct support for terrorist bombings on U.S. soil (FALN), high-level infiltration of U.S. intelligence (Montes and others), and fueling conflicts that killed Americans (Central America). These actions were offensive in nature and explicitly aimed at undermining U.S. security and interests. The claim does not hold up under scrutiny.
Let us examine his claim below at 7:04:
Let us now test Diaz-Canel’s claims, with some facts. This is not an exhaustive accounting.
Cuban Missile Crisis (1962): Cuba actively hosted and supported the secret deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles targeting the U.S. mainland—the closest the Cold War came to nuclear war.
The Black Friday Plot (1962). In November 1962, weeks after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuban DGI/State Security agents at the Cuba Mission to the United Nations in New York City orchestrated the “Black Friday Plot,” intending to detonate approximately 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of TNT plus a dozen incendiary devices, hand grenades, and detonators in crowded Manhattan locations on the busiest shopping day of the year (November 23). Primary targets were Macy’s, Gimbel’s, and Bloomingdale’s department stores, along with Grand Central Terminal. Individuals involved were diplomats Elsa Montero Maldonado and her husband José Gómez Abad; they supplied the explosives from the mission under diplomatic cover; attaché Roberto Santiesteban Casanova, who coordinated logistics; José García Orellana, a Cuban immigrant whose West 27th Street costume-jewelry shop served as the storage and assembly site; and his part-time assistant Antonio Sueiro. The FBI broke up the plot through counterintelligence surveillance of the Cuban mission and pro-Castro operatives; on November 17, agents approached Orellana, who cooperated by leading them to the cache at his shop, where the entire stockpile was seized in raids. The three non-diplomatic operatives were arrested on federal sabotage-conspiracy charges, while the diplomats were expelled under immunity; all charges were later dropped in a 1963 prisoner exchange with Cuba.
Tricontinental Conference (Havana, January 1966) Cuba hosted the First Solidarity Conference of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America (Tricontinental), attended by over 80 delegations from revolutionary and anti-colonial movements. The explicit purpose was to coordinate global support for armed struggles against “imperialism,” with a heavy focus on U.S. actions in Vietnam and Latin America. Fidel Castro’s closing speech promised “maximum support” from Cuba to any revolutionary movement on any continent. Cuba was chosen as the permanent headquarters for the Organization of Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America (OSPAAAL), which became a hub for propaganda, training coordination, and material aid to insurgencies. This was not passive diplomacy—it was active promotion and logistical organization of movements explicitly targeting U.S. interests and allies.
Support for the FALN (and related Puerto Rican terrorist groups) Following the failure of the 1962 Black Friday Plot and the exposure of Cuban diplomats providing explosives, Havana shifted to using proxies. One of them was a Puerto Rican terrorist group. The Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN) conducted more than 130 bombings and attacks on U.S. soil between 1974 and 1983, killing at least six people and injuring dozens. Key examples include the January 24, 1975 Fraunces Tavern bombing in New York City (4 dead, 63 injured) and a 1977 New York bombing spree that killed one and injured six while forcing the evacuation of 100,000 office workers. U.S. court documents, FBI investigations, and congressional testimony establish that Cuban intelligence (DGI) provided training in explosives, guerrilla tactics, and sabotage in Cuba; logistical support; and safe haven for leaders. Filiberto Ojeda Ríos (FALN co-founder) received advanced training in Cuba; Guillermo Morales (convicted FALN bomb-maker) fled to Cuba after escaping U.S. prison and remains there. Cuba also harbored other Puerto Rican militants wanted for attacks on U.S. targets. This was direct material support for terrorism on U.S. territory that killed innocent American civilians.
Broader state sponsorship of terrorism: Cuba was designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. in 1982 (and again in 2021) precisely for arming and training groups like the FALN, ELN (Colombia), and others engaged in violence against U.S. interests or allies. Havana also harbors dozens of U.S. fugitives wanted for terrorism and violence into the present day.
Infiltrating the U.S. government and passing intelligence to enemies Cuba’s Dirección General de Inteligencia (DGI) ran multiple long-term espionage operations inside U.S government agencies. The most damaging documented case is Ana Belén Montes (“Queen of Cuba”), a senior Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) analyst on Cuban and Latin American affairs. Recruited in 1984–1985, she spied for 17 years (until her arrest in September 2001), passing classified information on U.S. military plans, identifying at least four undercover U.S. intelligence officers working in Cuba, and influencing U.S. assessments of Cuba. She used encrypted communications and memorized documents to avoid detection. Other cases include Walter Kendall Myers and his wife (State Department analysts who spied for decades after recruitment in 1978) and the “Wasp Network” in Florida (1990s Cuban spy ring targeting exile groups and U.S. facilities). During the Cold War, much of this intelligence was shared with the Soviet Union (and later sold to other adversaries).
Tortured U.S. prisoners of war in Vietnam From July 1967 to August 1968, a team of Cuban intelligence officers led by an interrogator nicknamed "Fidel" (later identified by some as Fernando Vecino Alegret) conducted the "Cuban Program" at the North Vietnamese prison camp known as "The Zoo." This group, which also included officers nicknamed "Chico" and "Pancho," subjected approximately 20 American airmen to brutal interrogation and torture using rubber hoses and fan belts. These actions resulted in the death of Major Earl G. Cobeil, who died from his injuries in 1970, while survivors like Colonel Jack Bomar and Captain Raymond Vohden later provided detailed testimonies of the abuse.
Brothers to the Rescue shoot down (1996) Cuban spies from the DGI’s Wasp Network (La Red Avispa), including the Cuban Five—Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González—working in coordination with Cuban military officials under the orders of Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro, infiltrated Cuban-American exile groups like Brothers to the Rescue (BTTR) and Movimiento Democracia as part of Operation Scorpion to gather flight schedules, pilot details, and operational plans that enabled the premeditated shootdown of two unarmed BTTR civilian Cessna 337 Skymaster aircraft on February 24, 1996, in international airspace over the Florida Straits (6–16 nautical miles outside Cuba’s 12-mile territorial waters), by Cuban MiG-29UB and MiG-23 fighters under Raúl Castro’s command as Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, killing four U.S. citizens—Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales—who were on a search-and-rescue mission for Cuban rafters; The Wasp Network also gathered private personal information on U.S. military personnel, including names, home addresses, and even medical files at U.S. Southern Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa as well as officers stationed at Naval Air Station Key West (Boca Chica), as part of their infiltration of these U.S. military facilities and broader Operation Scorpion directives from Havana. Antonio Guerrero obtained employment as a civilian maintenance worker at Boca Chica and reported detailed information on combat readiness, daily activities, building layouts (including security areas), and other operational data.
Cuba maintains diplomatic, ideological, and historical operational ties to Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran ( as their primary backer). Havana’s support for Middle Eastern terrorists dates back to the 1960s. This includes documented Cold War-era training of Palestinian militants. Currently engages in intelligence sharing allegations, high-level meetings, and public support for Hamas post-October 7, 2023. This includes regional operational bases via Latin American networks).
Ongoing espionage and subversion: Post-Cold War operations continue, including economic espionage and intelligence-sharing that benefited U.S. adversaries.
Díaz-Canel’s claim is the standard Cuban dictatorship talking point that portrays the regime as purely defensive and non-aggressive. The claim frames Cuba as a passive victim of U.S. aggression with no history of offensive actions or interference, but the historical record says otherwise. The above ten examples are not an exhaustive list.
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