John Ratcliffe became the highest-ranking official in the Trump administration to visit the island nation this week, arriving in Havana to personally ensure that the country’s fuel reserves have been successfully depleted to zero.
HAVANA — C.I.A. Director John Ratcliffe arrived in the Cuban capital on Tuesday to conduct a multi-day inspection of the island’s collapsing infrastructure, fulfilling a standard intelligence mandate to visually verify that the nation has completely run out of oil.
Ratcliffe reportedly spent his first afternoon touring a series of dormant, Soviet-era power plants to confirm the total absence of diesel fuel. According to an itinerary provided by the State Department, the director’s schedule includes several high-level walkthroughs of darkened refineries, a brief audit of an empty petroleum storage facility, and a two-hour block set aside to stand on the Malecón and observe the nation's 18-hour rolling blackouts firsthand.
Agency officials characterized the historic visit as a routine compliance check on the six-decade U.S. embargo, noting that satellite imagery of a completely unlit sovereign nation still requires on-the-ground corroboration before the administration can officially mark the policy a success.
It is standard agency protocol to deploy senior leadership for an in-person assessment whenever a neighboring country's power grid successfully achieves total failure.
While diplomatic tensions between Washington and Havana continue to rise, Ratcliffe’s delegation has thus far maintained a strictly observational posture. Internal memos indicate the director’s primary objective is to evaluate the precise severity of the fuel shortage, which was recently exacerbated by a sharp decline in crude shipments from Venezuela, and to ensure that no unauthorized electricity is being generated in rural provinces.
Following his inspection of the non-operational Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, Ratcliffe is scheduled to return to Washington on Thursday to present a briefing to the Oval Office, where he will reportedly recommend maintaining current policy until the island runs out of matches.