CIA Forms Cuba Task Force, Deploying Spies and Cyber Officers for Trump Pressure Campaign
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 5
CIA Forms Cuba Task Force, Deploying Spies and Cyber Officers for Trump Pressure Campaign
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 5
Summary
People briefed on the move said the CIA has quietly created a Cuba task force to intensify pressure on Havana for economic, political and leadership changes sought by President Trump.
The unit is already adding case officers, intelligence analysts, cyberoperators and covert influence specialists, giving the agency a faster way to shift financial, human and technical resources toward Cuba.
Its mandate is narrower than the CIA's 1960 Cuba task force: officials said the new effort aims to widen fissures inside Cuba's political elite and encourage the replacement of anti-American hard-liners.
That historical echo is sensitive because the earlier task force helped oversee the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, underscoring the stakes around any renewed covert U.S. campaign against Havana.