Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the Cuban government rejected an offer of $100 million in humanitarian aid from the United States as the country continues to deal with the aftermath of a devastating hurricane, a weakened economy and a prolonged fuel shortage.
The US provided $6 million in humanitarian aid to the island's population in February, which was distributed by Caritas, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Catholic Church.
The US was prepared to send more, but the Cuban regime was "obstructing," according to Rubio, who told reporters in Italy that he discussed the aid distribution with Pope Leo XIV during a meeting at the Vatican this week.
“We have offered the regime there $100 million in humanitarian assistance that, unfortunately, so far, they have not agreed to distribute to the people of Cuba,” the secretary of state said. “So we helped with the aftermath of the hurricane, but we are offering more, and it is the regime that is not accepting it.”
"So we discussed this and we hope we can do it because we want to help the people of Cuba, who are being hurt by this incompetent regime that has destroyed the country and the economy," Rubio added.
The head of Cuba's foreign ministry rushed to object on Friday evening, denying that the offer existed and blaming the US for worsening the humanitarian crisis in the country.
"Aware that he must lie to justify his criminal attack against the Cuban people, the US Secretary of State invents the fable of a supposed aid offer worth 100 or more million dollars, seeking to deceive the Cuban people and the American people themselves," Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla wrote in a translated post on the social platform X.
“What the anti-Cuban politician knows very well, as many people know, because it is public information, are the figures in billions of dollars that the US economic war is costing Cuba,” he continued. “It takes a lot of cynicism to utter, shamelessly, a statement of alleged aid in such a false way.”
The US maintains an economic embargo that bans most trade with Cuba, but contains some exceptions, including exports of food, medicine and other humanitarian goods, as well as disaster response.
After Hurricane Melissa hit the island last fall, Rubio announced that the US would help recovery efforts, but ongoing fuel shortages have slowed delivery.
The Trump administration imposed an oil embargo on Cuba in January following the US 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 published in April noted that sufficient fuel supplies have not reached the island for three months despite the alleged arrival of several Russian shipments, plunging the nation into an "acute and ongoing" humanitarian crisis.
The island's power grid has been disconnected several times and access to food, water and medicine has been limited.
The US has increased pressure on Cuba since President Trump took office last year, seeking to leverage its economic power to push for political reform within the country.
The State Department on Thursday imposed new sanctions against two Cuban entities and an individual that the administration accused of helping to support the communist regime, including a Cuban military-controlled umbrella company called GAESA.
“There’s the Cuban government, which has a budget, and then there’s this private company that has more money than the government,” Rubio explained Friday, defending the sanctions. “None of that company’s money goes to build a single road, a single bridge, to provide a single grain of rice to a single Cuban, except for the people who are part of GAESA.”
"It's a sanction against this company that is stealing from the Cuban people for the benefit of a minority," he said, suggesting that additional sanctions would follow.
