The United States on Sunday formally charged Cuba with interfering in the official activities of its senior diplomat in Havana after small groups of Cubans reportedly heckled the envoy during engagements outside the capital.
On social media, the State Department described the incidents as "failed intimidation tactics" and urged that Havana cease "sending individuals to interfere with the diplomatic work" of U.S. Charge d'Affaires Mike Hammer.
The rebuke follows heightened friction between Washington and Havana after U.S. President Donald Trump last week labelled Cuba "an unusual and extraordinary threat" to U.S. national security and warned that he would impose tariffs on any country that supplied oil to the communist-run Caribbean island. On Sunday, Mr. Trump said Cuba was "a failing nation" but added: "I think we re going to make a deal with Cuba."
Hammer, a career diplomat who arrived in Cuba in late 2024, has been traveling across the island to hold meetings with political dissidents, Catholic Church representatives and other Cubans. The Cuban government has accused him of attempting to stir unrest.
After a meeting with local church leaders on Saturday, Hammer posted a video describing what he said was harassment. In his post he said: "When I left the parish, a few communists, surely frustrated by how bad the revolution is going, shouted obscenities at me."
Shortly after, additional videos emerged that show small groups in two locations during nighttime blackouts taunting Hammer with shouts of "Assassin!" and "Imperialist!";
There has been no independent identification of the people seen in those clips, and Cuba's government has not provided a comment regarding the footage. Reuters was unable to identify the individuals in the videos.
Havana's foreign ministry raised concerns with Hammer last year, accusing him of conduct it called "interventionist" and alleging he had encouraged Cubans to commit crimes and attack the state. The U.S. Embassy, which made the videos public, rejected those accusations and said Hammer is carrying out his official duties.
The two neighboring countries have been at odds since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, according to the record in the reporting, but the island's deepening economic crisis and renewed pressure from the Trump administration have intensified the dispute in recent weeks.
Contextually, the events unfolded against a backdrop of U.S. statements linking Cuba to national security concerns and threats of trade measures aimed at deterring third-party oil deliveries to the island. The public dispute over whether the videos show government-organized harassment or spontaneous actions by individuals remains unresolved given the lack of comment from Cuban authorities and the inability to identify those filmed.
The U.S. Embassy's release of the material and Washington's formal public demand that Havana stop interfering in its diplomat's work mark a clear escalation in diplomatic rhetoric, even as Washington and Havana have a long history of fraught relations.