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A new report from the America First Policy Institute warns policymakers in Washington that the deepening economic crisis in Cuba should not be mistaken for a diminishing threat to America's national security. The report notes how the country's relationships with Russia, China, and Iran have given America's enemies a foothold within 90 miles of Florida.
The report, titled "The Dictatorship Next Door: Cuba and the Fight for the Western Hemisphere," notes how America's policymakers have consistently framed Cuba's threat through issues of human rights, migration, and economics, while consistently underrating the threats posed by Cuba's alignment with America's adversaries. Those relationships present America's adversaries with the opportunity for intelligence collection, military and cyber partnerships, and operations to influence and manipulate the American people.
Melissa Ford Maldonado, AFPI's director of the Western Hemisphere Initiative and author of the report, said Cuba is a significant national security threat. "Cuba is a massive national security threat to the US," Ford Maldonado said. "They are a hostile communist regime that is only 90 miles from Florida, with a decades-long history of working against American interests."
The greatest current concern centers on China and suspected intelligence facilities on the island. A June 2026 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies analyzed continued activity at Cuban sites capable of supporting signals intelligence collection, with several sites found to have possible links to Beijing. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called Cuba an "espionage superpower" and warned that Havana has spies actively operating inside the United States.
This report arrives amid severe breakdowns of Cuba's National Electric System — at least six total collapses in 2026 alone. Residents in Matanzas have endured blackouts lasting as long as 87 continuous hours. The grid is so weak that multiple collapses per week have become the new normal. But the AFPI report's core message is direct: Cuba's economic and political desperation does not automatically make it less threatening to the United States. In fact, Cuba could be more dangerous as the regime, facing extinction, deepens its relationships with hostile nations to survive — giving Russia, China, and Iran an increasingly useful platform 90 miles from American shores.
