The other day I came across a story about Vic Mellor, a congressional candidate from Rhode Island who traveled to Cuba for the first time in May and suddenly found himself meeting with Raúl Castro’s grandson, Raúl Rodríguez Castro.
I found it fascinating and asked Mellor if he could tell me more about his trip. We spoke by phone yesterday.
“Well, I’m running for Congress up here in Rhode Island,” he told me, “and I’m getting hit pretty hard for this Cuba stuff, but I don’t care because it was the right thing to do.”
I asked him how he wound up in Cuba. He explained that he used to work for Michael Flynn, who served briefly as National Security Adviser to Donald Trump in 2017.
“I worked with General Flynn for years. I was basically his chief of staff, but not called his chief of staff. I ran his everything. I made a lot of contacts across the whole country, right? Because we traveled the whole country for all kinds of things.”
In January, Donald Trump declared that he was pushing for regime change in Cuba by the end of the year. Mellor took that seriously, especially after an elite Delta Force captured former President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in Venezuela as part of a “regime change light” operation.
“When the president came out and talked about Cuba, I was like, I can get there because I know someone who knows someone who says they know someone, right? So as soon as I heard that, I called my Cuba connection and off I went,” Mellor said.
“I packed up a bunch of medical supplies and I went to Cuba. And the very first day, I visited a couple hospitals, a bunch of churches. And then we just went someplace for dinner and lo and behold, Raul Castro, the grandson is there.”
Mellor, a businessman from Woonsocket, Rhode Island, said his contacts had talked about possibly meeting Rodríguez Castro, but he wasn’t 100% convinced.
“I was skeptical that it would happen, because you know how it is. People always … drop names, but this happened. And we sat and we talked. We had an interpreter because obviously, you know, I don’t habla español and he doesn’t habla inglés. So we had an interpreter.”
“He did most of the talking on that first night. And then we had dinner again on the second night. And, you know, we bounced back and forth some ideas. Then I left.”
This was in May, weeks before Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel announced a historic package of 176 economic reforms. Mellor said he and Rodríguez Castro discussed the reforms extensively.
“We talked a little bit about it the first night, but we mainly talked about it the second night,” Mellor said.
He recalled that Rodríguez Castro asked him for his opinion.
“They called them updates. And he was questioning me on them. Basically, he’s a dictator in Cuba. At any point, he could just shoot me and throw me out the back door and nobody would even say a word, right? But I’m there when he’s running all these fiscal changes that they want to do. You know, I’m like, no, that’s not good enough. That’s not good enough.”
Rodríguez Castro “responded well to me,” he said.
Mellor said he told Rodríguez Castro not to underestimate Trump “because when the president says he’s going to do something, he does it. At this point in time, all you had to look at was the Panama Canal, Venezuela, and then everything else that he says he’s going to do. Now look at Greenland, right? He says he’s going to take Greenland and we got Greenland now.”
In late September, the U.S., Denmark and Greenland signed a major security and defense agreement. Trump described it as the “biggest real estate deal ever,” leading some of his supporters to celebrate it as a successful acquisition.
Mellor said this sort of thing is what gave him confidence that Trump would follow through on Cuba.
“So I knew this was going to happen. I knew I had the contacts.”
Mellor is a MAGA candidate whose endorsements include former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Gen. Flynn.
On Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump said the 2020 election had been stolen, Mellor joined thousands of others taking part in the tumultuous protest at the Capitol Building.
Mellor said he is “massively anti-vax” and is “being guided by God.” He is also a Marine veteran. During one of his first talks with Rodríguez Castro, Mellor said, “He was talking about his military and all that stuff. And I told him, I was like, ‘Hey, listen, you guys need to stop your saber rattling. You know, there’s a Marine Corps amphibious unit right off your coast, right? What are you guys doing?’
“When I would answer in a way that his people didn’t like, the whole room would go quiet, you know? Because they’re like, ‘Oh, what the fuck is this dumb shit doing?’ But I’m going to tell you what, to his credit, he just kept going and going. I think he was definitely into the conversation and he wanted to hear other perspectives.
What else could I bring there? You know, I’m just a dude. I’m a nobody. But what I do have is perspective. And I got the balls to share it. That’s all I got. And a lot of times, as you know, throughout history, a lot of people had the right answer, but they just didn’t have the balls to say it. So there it is.
Mellor said his goal all along has been to find trading partners in Cuba and help bring jobs back to Rhode Island. American companies will have business opportunities in Cuba in the future, he said.
“Somebody is going to get in there and rebuild it.”
But first, he said, the U.S. and Cuba need to resolve their differences.
“The path to prosperity is through peace. You got to have peace. If you don’t have peace, you’re not having any prosperity.”
His Democratic opponent, Seth Magaziner, has criticized his Cuba trips. Mellor has defended his travels and said he’s been 100% transparent.
“Before I left for Cuba, I put out a news release. I mean, I told the world I went. I did a couple of interviews in Cuba. I came back. I did a couple of interviews in Miami when I landed. So I was definitely transparent in everything I was doing.”
Mellor said he was not acting on behalf of the U.S. government.
“Every time I hear the little sound bite from the Secretary of State where the media called them and they said, ‘Mr. Mellor does not represent the United States of America when talking to Cuba.’ And I’m just like, well, no fucking shit.’I wasn’t there negotiating with Cuba.”
Nor was he trying to undermine U.S. control of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, or GITMO.
“I picture a bunch of Cubans walking up to GITMO saying, ‘Hey, Mellor said this is ours now. Can you guys leave?’ I’m just like, oh, fucking stupid. Why would you even say something like that? And that’s just so stupid, the media is sometimes.”
Mellor returned to Cuba in June.
“The second time I went back, I went to more churches. I made a bunch of contacts. Because this was a two-pronged thing for me. I really wanted to get some contacts in the church. We’re already sending them food. And I was totally intrigued by the whole connection. It was super interesting to say the least, as you can imagine. You know, just sitting there having conversations with Castro, who at some point has probably got the highest odds of taking over the country.”
As Mellor sees it, Rodríguez Castro “is probably going to stay in place” in the event of a U.S. intervention.
“And there’s going to be some kind of a quasi communist, something similar to like Vietnam. I’m just like, hey, but this is going to happen pretty fucking quick.”
Trump wants it to happen, Mellor said, and so do the Cubans. “They obviously want it, too.” Rodríguez Castro “told me they want it. And then they actually submitted their reforms.”
“So that’s the gist of it right there. I left and I have not spoken to them since.”
I asked Mellor for his impression of Cubans he saw on the streets.
“They are they are hurting. I’m not going to lie to you there. They’re hurting. But when I was there, the mango trees were in full bloom, OK? And everywhere you went, there’s mangoes in the trees. So you can’t say it’s a starving society if there’s still food in the trees.
“There’s chickens running all over the fucking place. There’s goats everywhere. You would think that chickens and the goats and the fruit in the trees would be the first things to go. So I think the U.S. government at that point in time was probably under calculating how resilient they were or how hungry they weren’t.”
Mellor acknowledged the fuel shortages have hurt Cuba.
“There’s garbage everywhere. It looked like a Third World country in some areas. And then some areas, the roads were better than the roads in Rhode Island.”
On June 16, Mellor voluntarily filed a disclosure with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA. The act requires regular reports from anyone who is engaging in political activities, public relations, consulting or distributing information on behalf of a foreign government.
Mellor said he filed with FARA just in case the DOJ tried to prosecute him later for failing to register.
He recalled that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had investigated his former boss, Gen. Flynn, for violating FARA. As part of a 2017 guilty plea, Flynn admitted he had lied under oath about lobbying work aimed at benefiting the Turkish government.
“Being around Gen. Flynn for so long, I mean, that’s what they got him on was FARA in Turkey. And he didn’t even talk to the Turkish government. But yet the DOJ still weaponized it.”
Mellor said registering with FARA made sense.
“So, of course, I was going to do it that way. And I got the same lawyer that the general got, Jesse Binnall, who’s Trump’s lawyer also. So he was my lawyer through the whole thing. Technically I didn’t have to do it. But Jesse was like, ‘Vic, you know, you got to fucking do this.’ And I was like, ‘I plan on 100 percent doing it. Sure.'”
“I didn’t run any of that by the general. Honestly, the general threw out a warning to me. He’s like, ‘What are you doing? Why are you running for office? Why would you even put this out there like that politically?’ It’s just because he understood – and understands – the political environment better than I do.
“And, you know, I’m not going to lie to you, I was like, ‘Well, fuck, maybe I shouldn’t have went.’ Because now every day I get a post, ‘You’re a commie,’ this, that. And all I’m doing is trying to create jobs for Rhode Island and help feed the starving kids in Cuba. But yet you just get – I had a debate today against Seth Magaziner – and he brought that up in the debate. You know, ‘You’re a registered agent for the country of Cuba.’ I’m just like, ‘Oh, God.'”
Activities listed on Mellor’s FARA filing include: “Conversations regarding social media posts, possible Internet-based communications, and methods to improve communications between the U.S. and Cuba.”
His FARA informational materials also include a proposed media campaign aimed at countering negative stories and improving Cuban relations with exiles in the U.S.
“We combat the narrative of decline with the truth of what is growing,” one document states. “A flower growing through concrete does not argue against the darkness – it shows life persisting through it.”
Mellor said the materials – see folder here – were prepared with the help of AI for some future date when the U.S. and Cuba have normalized trade.
“We printed out some stuff on how to deal with the media and politicians and all this other stuff.” But he said his opponents are now using that against him “for political reasons.”
Mellor said his impression is that Cuban exiles are “gunning really hard against any kind of” Venezuela-style deal that involves a leadership change in Cuba, but with the same socialist government.
“The Cuban-Americans in South Florida are like, ‘Fuck, no, no, that shit ain’t happening. The only place the Castros are going to end up is on the firing squad. So I knew I was going to be making some enemies because of how hardcore they were.”
“I just took a calculated risk, thinking out of the box, and I just did it. And here we are.”
I asked Mellor how he thinks U.S.-Cuba relations will evolve.
“I honestly have no clue,” he replied.
The Trump administration has “obviously kicked the can” down the road until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections, he said.
“Obviously, I was hoping something really good would happen before the elections. But it is what it is. They’re not working on my timeline. I get that.”
“But with that being said, you know, it’s about the jobs, and they will come. And I do have a foot in the door. We’re already helping Rhode Island jobs because the food we’re sending down there was actually manufactured at a Rhode Island company. And it’s a company called Edesia, and it supplies nutritional candy bars around the world to Third World nations to help feed the kids.”
“It’s super nutritious stuff.”