U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News Channel on Wednesday that the Cuban communist regime rejected a $100 million American humanitarian assistance package that would have provided significant assistance to the Cuban people.
Sec. Rubio held an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity aboard Air Force One on the way to China, during which he discussed subjects including the current precarious state of Cuba under the Castro regime. He detailed that the United States, in partnership with the Catholic Church, offered to distribute the $100 million humanitarian aid package, which the Cuban regime refused.
The United States and the Catholic Church have had past success at directly distributing humanitarian assistance to Cuba using collaborative logistics that allow the help to be received directly by the Cuban people in a transparent and orderly manner. In February, the United States and the Catholic Church successfully distributed a $6 million humanitarian assistance package containing food kits, hygiene products, and other crucial supplies for Cubans still affected by 2025’s Hurricane Melissa.
Despite the refusal, the State Department reiterated the $100 million direct assistance offer to the Cuban regime on Wednesday. The State Department pointed out that Sec. Rubio has made repeated private assistance offers for the Cuban people that the Communist Party has refused. The offers include support for free satellite internet for Cubans in addition to the $100 million humanitarian assistance package.
“The regime refuses to allow the United States to provide this assistance to the Cuban people, who are in desperate need of assistance due to the failures of Cuba’s corrupt regime,” the State Department said.
“Today, the Department of State is publicly restating the United States’ generous offer to provide an additional $100 million in direct humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people that would be distributed in coordination with the Catholic Church and other reliable independent humanitarian organizations,” the statement continued. “The decision rests with the Cuban regime to accept our offer of assistance or deny critical living-saving [sic] aid and ultimately be accountable to the Cuban people for standing in the way of critical assistance.”
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla claimed on Thursday, in response to the revelation, that this marks the “first time” that the United States has publicly formalized the $100 million help package offer to Cuba and that the Cuban regime does not reject any foreign aid that is offered “in good faith and for genuine purposes of cooperation.”
He also alleged that it remains unclear whether the aid will be “in the form of cash or in-kind assistance, and whether it will be directed toward the people’s most urgent needs at this time, such as fuel, food, and medicine.”
“Nor does it [the Cuban regime] have any objection to working with the Catholic Church, with which it has a long and positive history of cooperation,” the Cuban foreign minister wrote. “We are willing to hear the details of the proposal and how it would be implemented. We hope it will be free of political maneuvering and attempts to exploit the hardships and suffering of a people under siege.”
Despite expressing the Cuban regime’s purported willingness to receive the aid, Rodríguez Parrilla said that the “best help” the United States could give to Cuba is to end the “energy blockade” and other measures that are part of the Cuban “embargo.”
The logistics employed by the U.S and the Catholic Church to deliver assistance to the Cuban people completely bypass the interference of the Cuban communist regime, which has been repeatedly accused of misappropriating humanitarian aid from other countries.
Mexico’s TV Azteca reported in March that supplies donated by the Mexican government to Cuba this year were found on sale at Cuban military-managed stores, with price tags in U.S. dollars and not Cuban pesos. Mexico reportedly shared the food and other supplies intending it to be free humanitarian aid to Cuban people. The U.S. dollar price tags made them unaffordable for Cubans, impoverished by 67 years of disastrous communist rule.
TV Azteca pointed out that the Cuban regime’s repeated pattern of receiving humanitarian aid that seemingly disappears from public distribution channels is an “open secret” in the country. The Mexican channel detailed that humanitarian aid arrives at Havana docks and its offloading is officially documented, but the goods “disappear” even from the Cuban regime’s communist ration cards logistics.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Read the full article here