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The United States said Wednesday it is ready to provide $100 million in direct assistance to the Cuban people, escalating a humanitarian and political challenge to Havana as the island struggles with blackouts, food shortages, and one of the deepest economic crises in decades.
The State Department said the money would be made available if the Cuban government permits assistance to reach ordinary Cubans directly. The text says: “if Havana permits it.”
The offer puts the Trump administration’s Cuba policy at the center of a familiar but sharpened dispute: Washington says it wants to help Cubans without empowering the communist government, while Havana argues U.S. sanctions are a central cause of the island’s suffering.
The announcement follows Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s comments from Europe, in which he said that they had made the offer to the Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel government, but it hadn’t been accepted.
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“We have offered the regime 100 million dollars in humanitarian aid that, unfortunately, they have not yet agreed to distribute to help the people of Cuba,” he said after meeting with Pope Benedict in the Vatican.
For months, Washington has made smaller U.S.-backed humanitarian shipments to Cuba, including aid distributed through the Catholic Church and Caritas after Hurricane Melissa battered the eastern provinces last year. The United States initially announced $3 million in assistance for Cuba as part of a broader $24 million Caribbean disaster aid package after the hurricane, with the Cuba aid routed through the Catholic Church rather than the government.
In February, the U.S. announced an additional $6 million in humanitarian aid for Cuba, largely food and solar lamps for areas hit by the storm. U.S. officials said at the time the aid would be distributed by the Catholic Church and Caritas and that Washington was trying to prevent the Cuban government from diverting or politicizing the assistance.
Rubio has framed the effort as direct support for Cubans, not for Havana. In January, Rubio wrote that the United States was working with the Catholic Church and partners to ensure aid reached the Cuban people “directly” and “not the illegitimate regime.”
Raúl Castro and his grandson Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, alias “El Cangrejo” (The Crab)
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The offer also comes after rumors of conversations between Rubio’s State Department and Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro “El Cangrejo,” the grandson of former president Raúl Castro, the brother of Fidel Castro.
The State Department’s latest statement turns that offer into a public diplomatic test for Havana. The message is blunt: the money is ready, but only if Cuba allows a delivery structure that bypasses state control.
For Cuba, the offer arrives at a moment of extraordinary strain. The island has faced prolonged blackouts, fuel shortages, food scarcity, and a collapse in public services that has fueled migration and public anger. AP reported earlier this year that Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel accused Washington of imposing an “energy blockade” by threatening tariffs on countries that provide oil to Cuba, while saying U.S. sanctions cost the country more than $7.5 billion from March 2024 to February 2025.
The Vatican has also emerged as a potential intermediary. The Washington Post reported that Cuban officials have sought Vatican help as the crisis deepened, while the Catholic Church, one of the few major institutions in Cuba outside the state, has played a role in distributing U.S.-funded aid.
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