Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Saturday that communist Cuba has spent decades burrowing agents into the highest levels of the U.S. government, calling the island nation an unmatched threat to American security despite its tiny size and crumbling economy.

“A failed state 90 miles from our shores that happens to be aligned with adversaries to the United States is a national security threat to our country,” Rubio told “My View with Lara Trump” on Fox News.

Rubio’s remarks came days after the State Department released a 100-page report accusing Havana of running influence operations across American universities, activist groups and protest movements, including ties to Antifa. The report described Cuba as the capital of 21st-century communism.

“They actually are an influence and espionage superpower,” Rubio said. “If you look at the history of espionage in the United States, Cuba is the only country that consistently has implanted and embedded spies in our system without even paying them.”

Rubio pointed to Manuel Rocha, a former U.S. ambassador and national security official who pleaded guilty to acting as a secret Cuban agent for decades and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He also cited Ana Belen Montes, a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst convicted of feeding American secrets to Havana, calling her penetration one of the worst intelligence failures in U.S. history. “We’ve had them penetrate the highest levels of Defense Intelligence Agency,” Rubio said.

The secretary went further, tying recent pro-Hamas, anti-ICE and pro-Maduro demonstrations to a common Cuban-backed protest apparatus designed to pressure lawmakers in Washington.

“There’s nothing organic about it. It is funded, it is organized and Cuba is a part of that network and in some cases a critical part of the network,” Rubio said. “And it’s a network they will weaponize against us. And they talk about it openly, about how they will use that network to pressure American policymakers.”

Rubio also blamed Cuba for decades of leftist unrest across Latin America, saying nearly every communist insurgency that has destabilized governments in the region traces back to Havana. “Every single one of them over the last 40, 50 years has found its support, its help, in many cases, its birth, from a Cuban influence operation,” he said.

Some critics have dismissed the State Department report as an attempt to manufacture a pretext for U.S. military action against Cuba. Rubio did not address that criticism directly Saturday, but he took aim at American academics and journalists who he said continue to defend the Diaz-Canel regime.

“I know there are plenty of people in American academia and, frankly, in American press that sympathize with the Cuban regime and have for a very long time,” Rubio said. “Part of it is motivated by their anti-Americanism and part of it motivated by ideological affinity.”

“But it doesn’t mean we can ignore this threat,” he warned.

American Greatness News Staff