A classified intelligence report claims that Cuba acquired hundreds of military drones and could use them to attack U.S. targets.
The intelligence, Axios noted, says Havana has more than 300 drones and has begun discussing the possibility of using them to attack U.S. targets like the country's base in Guantanamo Bay, military vessels and potentially Key West, which is located less than 100 miles from the Cuban capital.
The outlet, however, said the intelligence could become a pretext for U.S. military action against the country.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel appeared to react to the development, saying that "threats of military aggression against Cuba from the largest power in the world are well-known."
"The threat itself is already an international crime. Should it materialize, it will provoke a bloodbath of incalculable consequences, plus its destructive impact for regional peace and stability."
Las amenazas de agresión militar contra #Cuba de la mayor potencia del planeta son conocidas.
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) May 18, 2026
Ya la amenaza constituye un crimen internacional. De materializarse, provocará un baño de sangre de consecuencias incalculables, más el impacto destructivo para la paz y la estabilidad…
Diaz-Canel went on to say the country does not "pose a threat, or has any aggressive plans or intentions against any country." "Cuba, which is already going through a multi-dimensional aggression from the U.S., does have the absolute and legitimate right to defend itself from a belligerent attack, which can't honestly be used as an excuse to impose a war against the noble Cuban people."
The U.S. escalated its pressure against Havana last week after the Department of Justice reportedly began pursuing an indictment against former Cuban President Raul Castro.
The Associated Press reported on Friday that the DoJ is seeking Castro's indictment linked to his alleged involvement in the 1996 shooting down of four planes of an exile group based in Miami, Brothers to the Rescue.
Castro was then Cuba's defense minister. Cuba has declined to comment on a probable indictment sought by the U.S.
Also last week CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Cuba to meet with intelligence officials and Raul Rodriguez Castro, grandson of Raul Castro.
A CIA official told NBC News that Ratcliffe went there to "personally deliver President Trump's message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes."
The official went on to say that discussions revolved around "intelligence cooperation, economic stability and security issues, all against the backdrop that Cuba can no longer be a safe haven for adversaries in the Western Hemisphere."
Also citing a CIA official, Axios added in a report of its own that Ratcliffe urged officials to draw lessons from the operation where Venezuela's authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro was captured in January.
Cuban officials, on their end, revealed the meeting and said it was "part of the efforts to address the current scenario" of economic and social crisis. Havana added that it provided information "to categorically demonstrate that Cuba does not constitute a threat to U.S. national security."
The wording seems to be a direct reference to a recent remark from an official who recently told Axios that the Trump administration will not allow the country to "deteriorate into an even more severe security threat to the national security of the United States."
