HAVANA, Cuba. – Cuban officials are paying attention, focusing on President Donald Trump's recent nominees: Mike Pompeo for secretary of state and Ambassador John Bolton for national security advisor.
In the past, both of Trump's recent nominees have weighed in on the issue of Cuba.
Known as a war hawk, Bolton, 69, in a 2002 speech, declared that Cuba has "at least a limited offensive biological warfare and development effort" and was sharing the technology with other countries.
It's been reported that the then-national intelligence officer for Latin America and the State Department's top biological weapons expert disagreed.
Over the weekend, an article on the Cuban state-run Cubadebate newspaper questioned: Where are the biological weapons Bolton dreamed of?
The article goes on to call Bolton one of the most controversial and radical political figures in American politics who has a dark past when it comes to U.S.-Cuba relations.
Former chief of U.S. interest section in Havana, Vicki Huddleston, details in her newly released book how Bolton falsely accused Cuba of manufacturing biological weapons to derail former President Jimmy Carter's visit to Cuba.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who has been nominated to secretary of state, also knows the Cuba issue well.
In March 2016, when Pompeo was a congressman, he urged President Barack Obama not to visit Cuba.
In an opinion piece he wrote for the Independent Journal Review, Pompeo said: "By visiting Havana, President Obama is giving Fidel Castro a huge public relations coup. The state newspaper declared that his trip signifies the Castro regime's stellar human rights record...President Obama said he would travel to Cuba only if the liberty and freedom of ordinary Cubans had improved."