A senior U.S. military officer met with Cuban counterparts at the perimeter of Guantánamo Bay Naval Station on Friday, the highest-level military engagement since the Trump administration began ratcheting up pressure on the Cuban government this year.
According to a description of the meeting posted by U.S. Southern Command, the officers had a “brief exchange” on security matters regarding the Guantánamo base, which continues to hold 15 prisoners from the war against terrorism.
The symbolic importance of the meeting goes beyond whatever Gen. Francis L. Donovan, the leader of Southern Command, discussed with the senior Cuban military official Roberto Legrá Sotolongo and other Cuban officials.
General Donovan is the highest-ranking U.S. military official overseeing military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean and comes after John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, visited Cuba earlier this month.
The Trump administration has imposed an energy embargo on Cuba, leading the country to essentially run out of oil. Food shortages are also causing tensions on the island.
This month the United States indicted Raul Castro, the former president of Cuba, on charges connected to the downing of civilian planes in 1996. While the 94-year-old Mr. Castro does not hold formal power, he remains an influential voice. The indictment sets up at least the option of a military raid to capture him, a scenario that is still seen as unlikely, according to U.S. officials.
Still, U.S. officials have said privately they expect a continued military buildup around the island.
U.S. intelligence and reconnaissance flights around Cuba have been stepped up. The aircraft carrier Nimitz and at least one escort destroyer will remain in the Caribbean for at least several more days before they are scheduled to return to Norfolk, Va.
The military announced a new Marine Expeditionary Unit would replace the group that is set to return home. The new group will be called Littoral Combat Force-24, built around a 1,300-member Marine air-land-sea task force with headquarters in Puerto Rico. The United States wants Cuba to force Russia and China to abandon their intelligence listening posts on the island.
U.S. officials also want the Cuban government to make economic and political reforms. While the Trump administration has not been specific about the level of change it is demanding, senior officials are hoping the pressure campaign will ultimately drive the Communist Party from power.
In its social media postings, U.S. Southern Command posted a picture of General Donovan and the Cuban officials as well as photographs of the general touring portions of the base controlled by the small unit of Marines that are based there.
For years, the Guantánamo base commander, a Navy captain, met monthly with a regional Cuban military commander at the gate separating the U.S. outpost from the Cuban controlled area, which has a minefield.
The so-called fence-line meetings were established during the Clinton administration to discuss common issues and avoid misunderstandings. In the years that followed, particularly after the George W. Bush administration established the military prison there, commanders of the base described relations along the fence line as “benign.” The Trump administration stopped holding those meetings in January 2025.
The United States first leased the base at Guantánamo in 1903, and the American presence has been a source of tension with the Cuban government since after the revolution. The base has around 4,500 residents including Navy families and foreign nationals who work there. The base also holds a small Homeland Security detention operation.
