By: Cubadebate Media Observatory
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a speech today [July 16, 2026] at the State Department headquarters in Washington, during the opening of the Ministerial Meeting on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism. This was a prelude to the US State Department report on July 20, Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism.
The meeting was attended by delegations from 66 countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, represented by foreign and interior ministers, security officials, diplomats, and counterterrorism specialists. Also present were senior officials from the Trump administration , including FBI Director Kash Patel, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
Before this audience, Rubio constructed a supposed global terrorist threat using decontextualized facts, figures without verifiable support, unproven accusations, and rhetoric that turns the left into an essentially violent enemy alien to civilization.
The following analysis brings together ten of his most relevant claims and distinguishes between falsehoods and ideas of a clearly fascist nature.
1. “Governments refused to prosecute the violence of 2020”
What did he say? US local governments “simply refused to prosecute” those who committed violent acts during the 2020 protests.
Why it’s false: Records from the Justice Department itself contradict that generalization. There were federal investigations, indictments, and convictions for arson, rioting, and property destruction. Four people were charged in connection with the burning of the Minneapolis Third Precinct, and a federal jury convicted another defendant of arson and rioting. Specific prosecutorial decisions, the dismissal of minor charges, or cases lacking sufficient evidence can be debated, but it is not true that authorities generally refused to prosecute crimes. The distortion portrays prosecutors, mayors, and judges as political accomplices in the violence.
Sources:
Department of Justice: Four charged in Minneapolis Third Precinct fire ;
Department of Justice: Federal conviction for arson and rioting .
2. “All these crimes are organized left-wing terrorism”
What did he say? Rubio grouped together a school shooting, the murder of a health executive, the attacks against Donald Trump, and other political killings as evidence of the same far-left terrorist offensive.
Why it’s false: The enumeration groups together very different crimes without demonstrating that they share organization, leadership, funding, or doctrine. In the case of Luigi Mangione, a New York court dismissed the state terrorism charges for lack of legal basis, although it upheld the murder charge. Regarding Thomas Crooks, the perpetrator of the Butler attack against Trump, the FBI reported that it had not identified a definitive left-wing or right-wing ideology. The acts can be extremely serious without being part of a common conspiracy. Rubio substitutes proof of coordination with narrative proximity and guilt by association.
Sources:
New York courts: decision dismissing terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione ;
FBI: no definitive ideology identified in Thomas Crooks .
3. “Antifa is a coordinated global terrorist network”
What did he say? Antifa militants form interconnected networks that share infrastructure, funding, training, enemies, and a common mission.
Why it’s false: Some individuals have committed violent acts, but that doesn’t prove the existence of a single global organization. Antifa doesn’t exist. The Congressional Research Service itself describes Antifa as a “decentralized movement” comprised of independent groups and individuals and cautions against the legal difficulties of treating it as a single organization. The FBI has also maintained that it must investigate crimes and violence, not constitutionally protected ideologies or associations. Rubio concocts contacts, travel, and digital channels into a global terrorist structure without publicly disclosing its chain of command or common funding mechanisms.
Sources:
Congressional Research Service: Antifa as a decentralized movement ;
FBI: Investigations are based on violent acts, not ideologies or peaceful protests .
4. “Iran coordinates leftist groups around the world”
What did he say? Iran’s allied networks are becoming increasingly closely linked to left-wing militant groups in various countries.
Why it’s false: Rubio failed to identify any organizations, financial transfers, operations, training programs, intercepted communications, or legal proceedings that would prove such coordination. Reuters explicitly noted that he linked leftist groups to Iran and Cuba without presenting any evidence. Furthermore, the FBI’s public assessments describe the predominant threat as lone actors or small cells that are often radicalized online and act on mixed motivations, not a single global structure directed from Tehran. The accusation transforms heterogeneous domestic phenomena into an international proxy war without presenting the necessary evidence.
Sources:
Reuters: Rubio did not present evidence of the links attributed to Iran and Cuba ;
FBI: Predominance of lone actors and small radicalized online cells .
5. “Cuba built the Western far left”
What did he say? The Cuban ideological and intelligence network helped build the extreme left in the United States and remains inextricably linked to leftist movements inside and outside the West.
Why it’s false: Cuba has historically supported revolutionary movements and maintains relations with leftist parties, unions, and organizations. There is no evidence that it directs, finances, or trains an international terrorist network in 2026. Rubio conflates diplomacy, ideological affinity, and operational support for armed organizations as if they were one and the same. Reuters confirmed that he provided no public evidence of such a contemporary network. The Cuban government, for its part, has officially denied harboring, supporting, or financing terrorist or extremist organizations.
Sources:
Reuters: Rubio’s allegations of lack of evidence ;
Official Cuban statement: Cuba denies harboring, supporting, or financing terrorist organizations ;
Information from the Cuban government following a bilateral meeting on security .
6. “93% of attacks in the West were carried out by the far left.”
What did he say? Between 1970 and 1980, 93% of terrorist attacks committed in the West came from the extreme left.
Why it’s false: Rubio failed to mention the database, the countries included, the definition of “the West,” the exact time period, or the treatment of separatist, nationalist, or ethnonationalist organizations. He also didn’t clarify whether he was counting attacks, victims, attempts, or plots. The Global Terrorism Database requires precise methodological criteria for classifying each incident, and Europol explicitly distinguishes between jihadist, right-wing, left-wing, and anarchist terrorism, as well as ethnonationalist and separatist terrorism, among other categories. Without the methodology used by Rubio, the percentage cannot be reproduced or accepted as proven fact.
Sources:
University of Maryland: Global Terrorism Database methodology ;
Global Terrorism Database and its coding manual ;
Europol: differentiated classification of forms of terrorism .
7. “Immigration directly imports terrorism”
What did he say? The terrorist threat will continue as long as countries tolerate migration systems that import it directly into their territories.
Why it’s false: Some terrorists have crossed borders using immigration or travel systems, but that doesn’t make immigration the root cause of terrorism. The FBI has pointed out that a significant part of the threat comes from self-radicalized actors within the United States, often without individual direction from foreign organizations. It has also warned that there is no useful demographic profile of the lone terrorist and that many studied attackers were born in the United States. Rubio transforms a specific risk into a blanket suspicion about millions of migrants and omits internal radicalization, digital networks, and personal motivations. He does this to further Trump’s policies and betray the Latino community, to which he belongs, for political opportunism.
Sources:
FBI: self-radicalized actors, absence of a demographic profile and US-born attackers ;
FBI: extremists based primarily in the United States and mobilized autonomously .
8. “The protests almost brought the United States to its knees”
What did he say? The 2020 riots set fire to and looted American cities and nearly brought the country to its knees.
Why it’s false: During the protests, there were fires, looting, assaults, and serious damage, but the United States was nowhere near a state of collapse. Data compiled by ACLED shows that approximately 94% of the Black Lives Matter-related demonstrations were peaceful. The remaining 6% involved violence, clashes, vandalism, or looting, and it wasn’t always clear which actor initiated the incidents. Rubio blurs the distinction between peaceful protesters, lawbreakers, opportunistic looters, and violent groups, and transforms a public order crisis into an existential threat to justify an extraordinary repressive response.
Sources:
ACLED: Approximately 94% of pro-BLM demonstrations were peaceful ;
ACLED: Detailed data on demonstrations and political violence in 2020 .
9. “The worst rebel against the best”
What did he say? The radical left represents “the rebellion of the worst against the best” and of “the weak and cowardly against the strong and good.”
Why it’s a fascist idea: The phrase doesn’t describe specific criminal acts; it divides society into superior and inferior human categories. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum identifies the rejection of equality, the subordination of individual rights to an exclusionary national community, and the elimination of those presented as obstacles as characteristics of fascism. The parallel with Mussolini’s doctrine is explicit: the fascist leader defended the “immutable, beneficial, and fruitful inequality of humanity.” The rhetorical similarity allows us to identify a hierarchical and dehumanizing scheme characteristic of that tradition.
Sources:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Definition and Characteristics of Fascism ;
Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism : Defense of Human Inequality .
10. “This evil must be crushed forever.”
What did he say? “The time has come to crush this evil once and for all.”
Why it’s a fascist idea: Rubio doesn’t just call for the prosecution of those responsible for crimes. He transforms a heterogeneous political field into an “evil” that must be crushed and presents politics as an absolute war between civilization and enemy. The Holocaust Museum explains that fascism constructs existential threats, accepts violence against those it considers obstacles, and may attribute to it a redemptive or purifying function.
No other speech by Marco Rubio is so similar to that of Adolf Hitler , when he said: “Before God and the world, the strongest has the right to make his will prevail.”
Sources:
Holocaust Memorial Museum: Violence, Existential Threats and Fascism ;
Adolf Hitler at an NSDAP rally held in Munich on April 13, 1923 .
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