Marco Rubio urges Cubans to collaborate with CIA to topple gov’t

NEW: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urges Cubans to secretly collaborate with the CIA to topple their government, warning Cuba could be next after Iran.

America's top diplomat just asked Cubans to spy for the CIA.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is openly urging people inside Cuba to secretly collaborate with the agency to bring down their own government, and you can see him here making the rounds in Washington. He paired the appeal with a warning, that after Iran, Cuba could be next.

This comes on top of President Trump's threat to send warships toward the island, and a ten month American blockade that has already produced power outages and water shortages for ordinary Cubans. So the pressure is not hypothetical. People are living it.

What makes this moment unusual is the openness. Recruiting informants is normally the quietest work a government does. Saying it out loud, on the record, from the Secretary of State, turns covert action into public policy.

The hardest fact tonight is this. Washington is no longer hinting at regime change in Havana. It is asking for volunteers.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.