A Growing Threat Close to Home

For critics of President Donald Trump’s increasingly aggressive posture toward Cuba, the sudden attention on Russian and Chinese spying from the island looks suspiciously convenient. Skeptics argue that Washington has known about intelligence operations in Cuba for decades and is now highlighting the issue to justify tougher policies against Havana. Yet even critics generally acknowledge an uncomfortable fact: having foreign intelligence infrastructure operated by America’s biggest geopolitical rivals sitting roughly 90 miles from Florida is a serious national security concern.

The issue is not simply ideological. According to officials familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments, China and Russia have significantly expanded their intelligence activities in Cuba in recent years, reportedly tripling personnel since 2023 and modernizing facilities used to intercept communications and monitor American military activity. The concern inside Washington is that Cuba has evolved into a platform where Beijing and Moscow can watch, listen, and potentially prepare for larger strategic ambitions aimed at the United States.

President Trump has made clear he sees the issue as urgent. “Other presidents have looked at this for 50, 60 years, doing something,” Trump said recently. “It looks like I’ll be the one that does it.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also emphasized the threat, warning of a “Russian and Chinese intelligence presence” operating about 90 miles from the American mainland.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies has emerged as one of the leading organizations documenting China’s growing intelligence footprint in Cuba. Using satellite imagery and open-source intelligence, CSIS identified four facilities suspected of supporting Chinese signals intelligence, or SIGINT, operations: Bejucal, El Salao, Wajay, and Calabazar. According to the organization, “Cuba’s proximity to the southern United States and the Caribbean makes it a prime location for collecting signals intelligence.”

CSIS argues that geography alone makes Cuba enormously valuable. Sitting just south of Florida places the island within monitoring distance of key U.S. military assets, including combatant command headquarters, naval activities, rocket launches, and military communications. The report notes that Cuba is “well-positioned to keep watch on sensitive communications and activities, including those of the U.S. military.”

For Beijing, that makes Cuba a priceless listening post.

The Known Spy Installations

Among the most important installations is Bejucal, a long-standing intelligence site near Havana originally associated with Soviet surveillance during the Cold War. Today, CSIS identifies it as the largest active Chinese-linked SIGINT facility reviewed in its analysis. Satellite imagery indicates active operations, including dish antennas capable of intercepting satellite communications and monitoring rocket launches from places like Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. CSIS called it “a prime vantage point to collect valuable data on these launches.”

Another increasingly important facility is El Salao, near Santiago de Cuba. Construction reportedly began in 2021 and includes a circularly disposed antenna array capable of detecting communications over enormous distances. CSIS believes it may eventually monitor U.S. Navy operations and allied activity throughout the Caribbean. The site has fueled concerns because it represents expansion, not merely maintenance of older infrastructure.

Wajay, north of Bejucal, has expanded from a small site into a more sophisticated operation with numerous antennas, operational buildings, and support infrastructure. Meanwhile, Calabazar has received upgrades involving satellite-tracking equipment, which analysts believe may be used to monitor space-based communications. Together, the facilities paint a picture of a surveillance network that appears increasingly modern and increasingly ambitious.

Russia also remains deeply involved. One of the central concerns is the Lourdes facility near Havana, described by the Trump administration as Russia’s largest overseas signals intelligence installation. Closed after the Cold War during warmer U.S.-Russia relations, Lourdes reportedly reopened in 2014 as relations deteriorated again. Former U.S. officials describe the site as bristling with antennas and electronic eavesdropping equipment capable of monitoring communications deep into the southeastern United States.

Why These Bases Matter

Critics often argue that Russia and China possess many other tools for intelligence gathering, including satellites, cyber operations, diplomatic outposts, and operatives already inside the United States. Some former officials even question whether Cuba-based facilities represent a dramatically new threat.

But defenders of Trump’s harder line respond that proximity changes everything.

Former National Security Agency general counsel Glenn Gerstell described Cuba as “an unbelievably rich location,” arguing that even less sophisticated local antennas remain “surprisingly relevant” in an age of satellites and fiber optics because they can intercept nearby communications with exceptional clarity. Intelligence analysts also warn that these sites provide China and Russia with opportunities to study how the U.S. military actually fights in real-world conditions, monitoring command structures, tactical communications, maritime activity, and space launches.

L.J. Eads, a former Air Force SIGINT analyst, warned that China’s facilities offer “a front-row seat to observe the way the U.S. fights,” allowing Beijing to gather insight into command systems and communications that could prove valuable in a future conflict. “From a SIGINT perspective, this is gold,” he said.

Trump’s First-Term Negotiations and America’s Response

The concern is not entirely new. During the 2016 Republican primary campaign, Marco Rubio laid out what he considered a successful deal with Cuba: Havana would “kick out the Russians from Lourdes and kick out the Chinese listening station in Bejucal.” That goal reflected an early Trump-era effort to pressure Cuba to distance itself from adversarial powers.

Since then, Washington has attempted mitigation through diplomacy, intelligence gathering, and direct pressure. According to officials, the United States conducts near-daily surveillance drone flights around Cuba and has repositioned spy satellites to better monitor developments. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard reportedly elevated Cuba as a higher intelligence target, while CIA Director John Ratcliffe recently warned Cuban officials that Havana could no longer host American adversaries and expect normal relations.

Whether one sees the Cuba issue as a pretext for tougher policies or as a legitimate national security emergency, one fact remains difficult to dismiss: Russia and China are not building or upgrading intelligence infrastructure in Cuba for symbolic reasons. A listening post 90 miles from the American mainland offers extraordinary strategic advantages, and Washington increasingly appears unwilling to ignore them.