A new report warns that Cuba’s relationships with Russia, China and Iran could provide America’s adversaries with a strategic foothold just 90 miles from Florida, arguing that the island’s deepening economic crisis does not necessarily make it less dangerous to the United States.The America First Policy Institute report, The Dictatorship Next Door: Cuba and the Fight for the Western Hemisphere, argues that Washington has too often viewed Cuba primarily as a human rights, migration or economic problem while overlooking the national security implications of Havana’s relationships with U.S.adversaries.
The report says those partnerships create opportunities for intelligence collection, military cooperation, cyber operations and political influence close to the U.S.homeland."Cuba is a massive national security threat to the U.S.," report author Melissa Ford Maldonado, director of AFPI’s Western Hemisphere Initiative, told Fox News Digital in an interview ahead of the report’s release.RUBIO WARNS CUBA HAS INFILTRATED US WITH SPIES, CALLS COMMUNIST REGIME AN 'ESPIONAGE SUPERPOWER'Xi Jinping meets with Miguel Diaz-Canel at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sept.
4, 2025.Diaz-Canel is in China for commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
(Xinhua News Agency via Getty Ima)"They are a hostile communist regime that is only 90 miles from Florida," Ford Maldonado said, arguing that Cuba has a decades-long history of working against American interests and supporting U.S.adversaries.The report’s most concrete current concern centers on China and suspected intelligence facilities on the island.A June 18, 2026, analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found continued activity at Cuban sites capable of supporting signals intelligence collection.
CSIS said it had previously identified four such sites, several with poss...