Cuba's Secret Letter to Trump Intercepted at U.S. Border

(MENAFN) The Cuban government made a covert attempt last week to establish a direct back-channel with U.S. President Donald Trump, dispatching a private businessman to hand-deliver a sealed diplomatic letter to the White House — bypassing official channels entirely — only for the effort to be thwarted at the border, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The letter, bearing an official Cuban government seal and formatted as a formal diplomatic note, was deliberately routed around U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has championed a policy of regime change toward Havana. The back-channel operation was engineered by Raul Rodriguez Castro, grandson and senior aide to 94-year-old former Cuban President Raul Castro and widely regarded as one of the island's most influential power brokers, the report said.

The missive proposed a package of economic and investment agreements tied to sanctions relief, and signaled that Havana was preparing for a potential U.S. military incursion, an unnamed U.S. official told the paper.

The chosen courier — Roberto Carlos Chamizo Gonzalez, 37, a Havana-based entrepreneur operating in luxury tourism and high-end car rentals — was intercepted by security personnel upon landing at Miami International Airport. Officers confiscated the letter and placed him on a return flight to Cuba.

The Wall Street Journal noted that the maneuver appeared calculated to sidestep Rubio — the son of Cuban immigrants and Washington's most aggressive proponent of maximum pressure against the Castro government.

Ricardo Herrero, executive director of the Washington-based Cuba Study Group, was scathing in his assessment of the gambit, suggesting that an attempt to sidestep the top US diplomat was "downright foolish and bound to backfire," adding that "it's worse to go with an unknown with no personal relationship to the president, which makes it look more foolish."

The failed outreach comes at a moment of acute desperation for Havana. Cuba is currently buckling under its most severe economic crisis in decades, compounded significantly after U.S. forces detained Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in January 2026, prompting Washington to sever Caracas' oil deliveries to the island and impose a near-total fuel embargo. Widespread and recurring power blackouts have further deepened the humanitarian toll.

President Trump has shown little sympathy for Havana's deteriorating condition, branding Cuba "a failing nation," floating the notion of a "friendly takeover," and recently suggesting the U.S. "may stop by Cuba" once its military engagement in Iran concludes. The Cuban government, for its part, has publicly vowed to resist any American military action.

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