Federal authorities have long identified Cuba as an active intelligence threat to the United States, citing decades of espionage cases involving agents operating inside the U.S. government.
Miami-Dade County Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez issued a statement Tuesday highlighting what he described as the continuing national security threat posed by Cuba’s intelligence operations against the United States.
Fernandez pointed to federal warnings and past espionage cases involving Cuba, including Ana Belén Montes and former U.S. Ambassador Víctor Manuel Rocha, both of whom were tied to long-running Cuban intelligence activity inside the U.S. government.
The FBI states that it protects the United States from the “hostile intelligence activities of Cuba” and says those activities can include espionage, foreign influence operations and other threats.
In the Rocha case, the U.S. Department of Justice said the former diplomat pleaded guilty in 2024 to secretly acting for decades as an agent of the Cuban government. In that same case, FBI Miami Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri said the counterintelligence threat facing the country is “real, pervasive, and has the potential to cause great harm to our national security.”
The FBI’s historical account of the Montes case says she worked as a senior Defense Intelligence Agency analyst while secretly spying for Cuba and leaking classified U.S. military information.
Fernandez’s statement framed those cases as evidence that Cuba’s intelligence efforts have remained a concern for federal law enforcement and counterintelligence officials for decades.