Mike Hammer records a video message on the streets of Havana to get people to approach him.
14ymedio, Madrid, May 2, 2025 — “Hi I’m Mike Hammer, the head of mission of the United States Embassy in Cuba.” This is how the diplomat presents himself in a short video uploaded to the Facebook page of the US Embassy on the Island. In just 37 seconds, Hammer sends a message to the population inviting them to approach and speak with him if they see him walking around.
“I am traveling through Cuba because I know from my experience as a diplomat for more than 35 years and having been an ambassador in Chile and Congo, that it is very important to understand a country and its people by traveling and visiting all the provinces. So, when you see me on the street, I would like to speak with anyone who wants to share their perspectives, their ideas, and I hope we can have a nice conversation. See you around and until next time,” says a friendly Hammer.
The post, published on the Embassy’s Facebook page, is accompanied by a short text that encourages, even more, the ordinary citizen to contact the delegation and approach Hammer. “I would like to know the country well. Please send me your suggestions of places I should visit, and if you want, meet me when I am on the ground. Send an email to: havanapublicaffairs@state.gov”.
The video constitutes a challenge in a week in which the diplomat has been pointed out by the Regime, which accuses him of maintaining “disrespectful behavior contrary to the rules of international law” and calls his action “silly and interfering.” In an article published in Cubadebate, its director and well-known spokesman for the Regime, Randy Alonso, pointed to Hammer as a”subversive agent and self-promoter” on the Island.
In the article, Alonso states that “Cubans” have complained that the Embassy’s business manager “is encouraging them to act against the State and the authorities, to become critics of official policies and generators of dissatisfaction.” Furthermore, Alonso reminds Hammer that he is obliged to respect the laws of the country in which he is located without taking advantage of the immunity granted by his office and tells him that he has already been warned on several occasions that his conduct is “disrespectful” and “serves the narrow interests of anti-establishment politicians.”
The criticism is not new, but it smells of a final warning. “No one explained to him in time that the accumulated experience of many years of frontal struggle against imperialist aggression allows us to observe with firmness and patience his silly and interventionist behavior, but only until Cubans have had enough,” it warns.
Mike Hammer took office in November 2024, succeeding Benjamin Ziff. At that time, the official Cuban press made no mention of the change and ignored the diplomat for a few months. Then Hammer began an agenda until then unprecedented, since none of his predecessors – Timothy Zúñiga-Brown, Mara Tekach and Jeffrey DeLaurentis, besides Ziff – had gone even half way in his approach to the opposition, first, and the Cuban people, now.
In December, Hammer began to meet with some opponents, starting with the leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, and the historical dissident Martha Beatriz Roque – who presumably this Thursday traveled back to Cuba after undergoing medical treatment in the U.S., without knowing if she would have been able to do so in Cuba. The official news source, Razones de Cuba, already pointed out that Hammer had met with “two worn-out figures of the Cuban counterrevolution” and warned: “The new US representative has gone down a bad path, because nothing good can be expected from this scourge.”
Hammer was not intimidated by this, and he continued to tour the Island and meet with well-known opponents, including José Daniel Ferrer, who received him at home. The leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba had just been released from prison, a measure reversed this week by the Supreme Court, which considers him in breach of the conditions imposed and presumes that he has violated new rules. Hammer also approached the hermitage of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre and was seen with Félix Navarro, who, like Ferrer, has just been returned to prison, and with Oscar Elías Biscet and the Camagüeyan priest, Alberto Reyes.
Hammer was not intimidated and continued to tour the Island and meet with well-known opponents, including José Daniel Ferrer
This week he met in Camagüey with Henry Constantín and Iris Mariño, independent journalists of La Hora de Cuba, and with relatives of political prisoners Andy García Lorenzo and Aroni Yanko García Valdez, in Santa Clara.
His meetings with opponents and their relatives have multiplied in every Cuban province, and he has also been with part of the exile. During a visit to Madrid, the diplomat met with Yanelis Núñez of the feminist platform Alas Tensas; Iliana Hernández and Luz Escobar, independent journalists; and former political prisoner Angélica Garrido.
All these meetings were criticized in an article published by the official media in March, entitled: “Weaving the anti-Cuban web: Hammer’s agenda.” The penultimate chapter was the text of last Tuesday. The US diplomat is not willing to slow down, and it is uncertain whether the Regime will either.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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