CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Under the Hammer: The 30-Year Career Diplomat Who Has Become Rubio’s Provocateur in Cuba

Mike Hammer. Photo: US State Department.

Mike Hammer is not your average diplomat. Built more like an SEC football coach than a statesman, Hammer sticks out like a sore thumb on his trips across the island. He was appointed as the ad interim Chargé d’affaires under Biden but has since grown close with Marco Rubio. Hammer’s resumé includes positions at the National Security Council, Bureau of Public Affairs, National Defense University, State Department Operations Center, along with several diplomatic posts.

Hammer demonstrates a continuity in Cuba policy between the Biden and Trump regimes: in soothing tones of compassion for the “Cuban people,” he has advocated choking the island through tightening the blockade during both. He has recently felt emboldened to directly call for regime change. He openly meets with opposition groups and dissidents and flaunts his activities on social media, fanning the flames of a Cuban color revolution.

United States-Cuba relations are at their tensest point since perhaps the invasion of Playa Girón (aka Bay of Pigs). This tension has brought more stipulations for US diplomats in Cuba and vice-versa. Under the grip of the current US regime, Cuban diplomats are required to notify and be approved by the Department of State to visit anywhere from a local government official’s office to an agricultural facility.

Rubio announced this new requirement last year, the latest in a long line of restrictions constraining Cuban diplomats (during the “Interests Section period” (1977-2015), Cuban diplomats had to notify the State Department if they left the Capital Beltway). In Cuba, however, Hammer enjoys the luxuries afforded to the average diplomat in a friendly country.

Hammer (center) meeting with family members of Yosvany Garcia and Ramon Zamora, both dissidents arrested during the 2021 Cuban protests. Taken from Latin American Reports, which got the image from the US Embassy Instagram account.

He is what one can call an instigating victim, a dominant trend in the global right-wing hellscape; he creates conflict and then cries foul when he is condemned or rejected by Cubans. Hammer travels the island from Pinar del Río to Guantanamo encouraging dissidents and sowing division. He has also often been seen flashing an “L” hand signal........

© CounterPunch