By Cubadebate Media Observatory on July 16, 2026
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a speech today at the State Department headquarters in Washington during the opening of the Ministerial Meeting on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism.
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 counter terrorism experts. Also present were senior officials from the Donald Trump administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel; Secretary of Education Linda McMahon; Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent; and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
Before this audience, Rubio constructed a supposed global terrorist threat using facts taken out of context, figures without verifiable backing, unproven accusations, and rhetoric that portrays the left as an essentially violent enemy alien to civilization.
The following analysis compiles ten of his most significant claims and distinguishes between falsehoods and ideas with a clearly fascist origin.
What did he say?
U.S. local governments “simply refused to prosecute” those who committed acts of violence during the 2020 protests.
Why it’s false: The Justice Department’s own records contradict that generalization. There were federal investigations, indictments, and convictions for arson, rioting, and property destruction. Four people were charged with setting fire to the Third Precinct in Minneapolis, and a federal jury convicted another defendant of arson and participation in rioting. Specific prosecutorial decisions—such as the dismissal of minor charges or cases lacking sufficient evidence—may be debated, but it is not true that authorities generally refused to prosecute these crimes. This distortion portrays prosecutors, mayors, and judges as political accomplices to the violence.
Sources:
Department of Justice: Four Charged in the Arson of the Minneapolis Third Precinct;
Department of Justice: Federal Conviction for Arson and Rioting.
What did he say?
Rubio grouped together a school shooting, the murder of a health care executive, the attacks on Donald Trump, and other political homicides as evidence of a single far-left terrorist offensive.
Why it’s false: The list groups together very different crimes without demonstrating that they share any common organization, leadership, funding, or ideology. In the case of Luigi Mangione, a New York court dismissed the state terrorism charges due to lack of legal basis, though it upheld the murder charge. Regarding Thomas Crooks, the perpetrator of the Butler attack on Trump, the FBI reported that it had not identified a definitive left-wing or right-wing ideology. These acts may be extremely serious without being part of a common conspiracy. Rubio substitutes narrative proximity for evidence of coordination and guilt by association.
Sources:
New York courts: decision dismissing terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione;
FBI: no definitive ideology was identified in Thomas Crooks.
What was said?
Antifa activists 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 does not prove the existence of a single global organization. Antifa does not exist. The U.S. Congressional Research Service itself describes Antifa as a “decentralized movement” composed of independent groups and individuals and warns of the legal difficulties of treating it as a single organization. The FBI has also maintained that it must investigate crimes and violence, not ideologies or constitutionally protected associations. Rubio turns contacts, travel, and digital channels into a global terrorist structure without publicly presenting 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.
What did he say?
Iran’s allied networks are increasingly closely linked to militant left-wing groups in various countries.
Why it’s false: Rubio did not identify any organizations, financial transfers, operations, training, intercepted communications, or legal proceedings that would prove such coordination. Reuters specifically noted that he linked leftist groups to Iran and Cuba without presenting evidence. Furthermore, the FBI’s public assessments describe the predominant threat as lone actors or small cells that are typically radicalized online and act out of mixed motivations—not a single global structure directed from Tehran. The accusation turns heterogeneous domestic phenomena into a proxy international war without presenting the necessary evidence.
Sources:
Reuters: Rubio did not present evidence of the alleged ties to Iran and Cuba;
FBI: predominance of lone actors and small cells radicalized online.
What did he say?
The Cuban ideological and intelligence network helped build the far left in the United States and remains inextricably linked to leftist movements both within 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 in 2026 it will lead, finance, or train an international terrorist network. Rubio conflates diplomacy, ideological affinity, and operational support for armed organizations as if they were one and the same. Reuters confirmed that he did not provide public evidence of such a contemporary network. The Cuban government, for its part, has officially denied that it harbors, supports, or finances terrorist or extremist organizations.
Sources:
Reuters: Lack of evidence presented by Rubio;
Official Cuban statement: Cuba denies harboring, supporting, or financing terrorist organizations;
Information from the Cuban government following a bilateral meeting on security.
What did he say?
Between 1970 and 1980, 93% of terrorist attacks committed in the West were carried out by the far left.
Why it’s false: Rubio did not mention the database, the countries included, the definition of “the West,” the exact time period, or how separatist, nationalist, or ethno-nationalist organizations were treated. Nor did he clarify whether the figure included attacks, victims, attempted attacks, or plots. The Global Terrorism Database requires precise methodological criteria to classify each incident, and Europol explicitly distinguishes between jihadist, right-wing, left-wing, and anarchist terrorism, as well as ethno-nationalist and separatist terrorism, among other categories. Without the methodology used by Rubio, the percentage cannot be replicated or accepted as a proven fact.
Sources:
University of Maryland: methodology of the Global Terrorism Database;
Global Terrorism Database and its coding manual;
Europol: differentiated classification of forms of terrorism.
What was said?
The terrorist threat will continue as long as countries tolerate immigration systems that directly import it into their territories.
Why it’s false: Some terrorists have crossed borders using immigration or travel systems, but that does not make immigration the general cause of terrorism. The FBI has noted that a significant portion of the threat comes from self-radicalized actors within the United States, often without direct guidance from foreign organizations. It has also warned that there is no useful demographic profile for the lone terrorist and that many of the attackers studied were born in the United States. Rubio transforms a specific risk into a blanket suspicion against millions of immigrants and overlooks domestic radicalization, digital networks, and personal motivations. He does so to align with Trump’s policies and by betraying Latinos—the group to which he belongs—out of political opportunism.
Sources:
FBI: self-radicalized actors, absence of a demographic profile, and U.S.-born attackers;
FBI: extremists based primarily in the United States and acting autonomously.
What did he say?
The 2020 riots set American cities ablaze and led to looting, nearly bringing 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 ceasing to function as a state. Data compiled by ACLED shows that approximately 94% of the demonstrations linked to Black Lives Matter were peaceful. In the remaining 6%, violence, clashes, vandalism, or looting were reported, and it was not always clear which party initiated the incidents. Rubio blurs the distinction between peaceful protesters, lawbreakers, opportunistic looters, and violent groups, and frames a public order crisis as 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.
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 this is a fascist-inspired idea: The phrase does not describe specific criminal acts; it divides society into superior and inferior human categories. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum identifies among the traits of fascism the rejection of equality, the subordination of individual rights to an exclusionary national community, and the elimination of those portrayed as obstacles. The parallel with Mussolini’s doctrine is explicit: the fascist leader defended the “immutable, beneficial, and fruitful inequality of humanity.” The rhetorical similarity reveals a hierarchical and dehumanizing framework characteristic of that tradition.
Sources:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: definition and characteristics of fascism;
Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism: a defense of human inequality.
What did he say?
“The time has come to crush this evil once and for all.”
Why this is a fascist-inspired idea: Rubio does not merely call for the prosecution of those responsible for crimes. He turns a heterogeneous political camp into an “evil” that must be crushed and frames politics as an all-out war between civilization and the enemy. The Holocaust Museum explains that fascism constructs existential threats, condones violence against those it considers obstacles, and may attribute a redemptive or purifying function to such violence.
No other speech by Marco Rubio resembles that of Adolf Hitler so closely, when he said: “Before God and the world, the strongest has the right to impose his will.”
Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English