Is the Top US Diplomat’s Time in Havana Almost Up?
By Francisco Acevedo
HAVANA TIMES – Mike Hammer only took office as head of the US mission in Havana in November 2024, still under the Biden administration, and at the pace he’s going, he’s on the verge of being declared persona non grata.
It turns out Hammer isn’t content to stay quietly in his air-conditioned office without suffering blackouts—he’s had the audacity to go out and walk the streets of Cuba to get a sense of how people feel about the harsh reality they are living.
After traveling the country from west to east, the diplomat declared in Miami that he witnessed a sense of failure regarding the Revolution, and that public discontent on the Island is widespread. Hammer revealed that those he interviewed included sectors traditionally linked to the state apparatus, though he gave no further details.
The official stated that most Cubans believe the Revolution has failed to deliver on its promises and attribute the energy crisis, food and medicine shortages to the failures of the Cuban regime.
Despite being constantly watched by Cuban authorities, something he himself confirmed (“There’s a lot of surveillance, you see Ladas everywhere, they’re filming us all the time,” he said), he has recently visited opposition figures and ordinary citizens, and has shared his activities on the official social media accounts of the US Embassy in Havana.
Naturally, his visit to Santiago de Cuba included a stop to see Nelva Ortega, wife of well-known dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer, who is currently imprisoned. Hammer also called for Ferrer’s release.
This same month, in Havana, he met with veteran dissident Marta Beatriz Roque, leader of the Ladies in White; in Cienfuegos, he visited Juan Alberto de la Nuez, another opposition figure who was recovering from a reported attack; in Santa Clara, he saw dissident Guillermo “Coco” Fariñas; and in Trinidad, he met with Catholic priest Jose Conrado, a well-known critic of Cuba’s political system. He also showed interest in imprisoned figures like Luis Manuel Otero and Maykel Castillo “El Osorbo,” to name only the most well-known.
Predictably, none of this has gone over well with the government led by Miguel Diaz-Canel, which has accused Hammer of “interference,” of promoting subversion, and of violating the principle of non-intervention enshrined in the Vienna Convention, the international treaty governing diplomatic relations between states. They warned him that their “patience has a limit.”
Nonetheless, Hammer has continued his travels and maintains his stance on engaging directly with Cubans, either in person or via email. The former US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and former spokesperson for the White House National Security Council speaks perfect Spanish, having lived in Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, and Venezuela.
The US embassy confirmed that hundreds of people had written to request meetings with him. But with the stir this caused, State Security immediately intervened to discourage any interaction with Cuban citizens by any means, which traditionally leads to interrogations or surveillance by the dictatorship’s repressive forces.
As for the possibility of drastic action against him, the Cuban government knows that expelling him from Havana could lead to reciprocal expulsions of Cuban diplomats in Washington and New York, as has happened in the past. And they don’t have enough trustworthy “cadres” to be constantly replacing them.
Moreover, Cuban officials are currently intensifying lobbying efforts to seek economic aid and business deals, boost their usual campaigns against the embargo, and try to curtail Trump administration policies toward the island.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Minrex) maintained its usual stance, claiming that it is the United States’ unilateral coercive measures that are responsible for Cuba’s deep crisis.
As is typical of the regime’s discourse, at no point did it take any responsibility for the situation that is gravely affecting ordinary Cubans. It labeled the families of political prisoners as “figures directly or indirectly funded” by the US government and dismissed the diplomat’s statements as false.
In recent months, Minrex has summoned US diplomats three times to issue “strong protests” over what it sees as acts of “interference.”
Once again, this policy is an attempt to justify censorship and the lack of informational pluralism in the country, while Hammer maintains that he’s been warmly and kindly received in the homes he’s visited.
In fact, the man has probably been inside more Cuban homes than Diaz-Canel himself—let alone Raul Castro, who never set foot in the home of an ordinary Cuban, feeling far too untouchable.
The truth is that Hammer is carrying out the directives of the current Trump administration toward the island, spearheaded by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and based on a renewed hardline approach toward the regime and support for the Cuban people.
Although opening another diplomatic conflict isn’t in Havana’s interest right now, it remains to be seen how long the regime’s patience will hold regarding this increasingly troublesome diplomat.
Personally, I think his time is short. But who knows? Maybe Cuban authorities realize that going after the messenger won’t stop the message, and that expelling Hammer would be pointless if whoever replaces him comes with the same strong commitment to current US policy toward the island.