The United States government announced this Thursday a humanitarian aid additional six million dollars for Cubaafter the three million which he sent in January following the passage through the island in 2025 of the Hurricane Melissa.
Aid despite threat of tariffs
The assistance will consist of basic products transported from Miami, in the southeastern United States, and distributed with the help of the Catholic Church and Caritas, the State Department reported in a statement.
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“This method has proven to be highly effective in ensuring that the failed Cuban regime does not interfere with, or divert, assistance intended for the island’s needy population,” the document indicates.
The announcement comes at a time of strong tensions between Washington and Havana, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 28 in which threatens to impose tariffs to the countries that they sell oil to Cuba.
The United States has already cut off the supply of Venezuelan oil to the island after the capture of President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, on January 3through a military operation.
When presenting the new assistance package for Cubans, Jeremy P. Lewin, Undersecretary of State for Foreign Assistance, untied cuts in oil shipments to Cuba of the situation in the country.
The island of Cuba still in serious crisis
The island, governed by the Communist Party, has been mired in a serious economic crisis for years, with rampant inflation, shortages of food, fuel, medicine and recurring blackouts.
“This idea that a short-term change in a certain amount of oil shipments is responsible for the humanitarian situation in Cuba is simply false,” Lewin said.
According to him, the culprit is the government that “cannot supply the food shelves.”
After sending the first aid package in January, the Cuban government accused Washington of “political manipulation.”
The Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, showed himself this Thursday willing to dialogue with States “without pressure” or “interference.”
Washington stated, for his part, that Those conversations have already started.
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