Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the Cuban government turned down a $100 million humanitarian aid offer from the U.S., as the nation continues to grapple with the fallout of a devastating hurricane, a weakened economy and a prolonged fuel shortage.
The U.S. provided $6 million in humanitarian aid to the island’s population in February that was distributed by Caritas, a nonprofit organization tied to the Catholic Church.
The U.S. was prepared to send more, but the Cuban regime was “standing in the way,” according to Rubio, who told reporters in Italy that he discussed the delivery of aid with Pope Leo XIV during a meeting at the Vatican this week.
“We’ve offered the regime there $100 million of humanitarian aid that, unfortunately, so far, they have not agreed to distribute to the people in Cuba,” the secretary of state said. “So, we did the hurricane relief, but we’re offering more, and it’s the regime that’s not accepting it.
“So, we discussed that, and we hope we can do it because we do want to help the people of Cuba, who are being hurt by this incompetent regime that’s destroyed the country and the economy,” Rubio added.
The head of Cuba’s foreign affairs ministry was quick to push back on Friday night, denying that the offer existed and blaming the U.S. for the country’s worsening humanitarian crisis.
“Aware that he needs to lie to justify his criminal assault against the Cuban people, the U.S. Secretary of State fabricates the fable of an alleged offer of aid valued at 100 or more million dollars, seeking to deceive the people of Cuba and the American people themselves,” Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla wrote in a translated post on social platform X.
“What the anti-Cuban politician does know very well, as many people know, because it is public information, are the figures in billions of dollars that the U.S. economic war costs Cuba,” he continued. “It takes great cynicism to utter, without shame, a statement of supposed aid in such a mendacious manner.”
The U.S. maintains an economic embargo that bars most commerce with Cuba but does contain some exceptions, including for exports of food, medicine, and other humanitarian goods, as well as disaster response.
After Hurricane Melissa battered the island last fall, Rubio announced the U.S. would help recovery efforts, but the ongoing fuel shortage has slowed distribution.
The Trump administration put an oil embargo on Cuba in January following the U.S. military operation in Venezuela that led to the capture of former leader Nicolás Maduro, warning other countries not to do business with them.
A United Nations report released in April noted that sufficient fuel supplies have not reached the island in three months — despite the alleged arrival of some Russian shipments — plunging the nation into an “acute and persistent” humanitarian crisis.
The island’s electrical grid has disconnected multiple times, and access to food, water and medication has been limited.
The U.S. has ramped up pressure on Cuba since President Trump retook office last year, seeking to leverage its economic power to push political reform inside the country.
The State Department imposed new sanctions Thursday against two Cuban entities and one individual that the administration accused of helping to prop up the communist regime, including an umbrella enterprise controlled by the Cuban military called GAESA.
“There’s the Cuban Government, and they have a budget, and then there’s this private company that has more money than the government does,” Rubio explained on Friday, defending the sanctions. “None of the money in that company goes to build a single road, a single bridge, provide a single grain of rice to a single Cuban, other than the people that are part of GAESA.”
“It’s a sanction against this company that is stealing from the Cuban people to the benefit of a few,” he said, suggesting additional sanctions were coming.
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