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The Republican congressman Carlos A. Giménez accused the Cuban regime on Wednesday of rejecting more than 100 million dollars in food that the United States offered to distribute directly to the people, and he denounced that the dictatorship prefers to seize the aid and then resell it.
"The dictatorship in Havana denies the people the opportunity to receive over 100 million dollars in food directly distributed by the U.S.," wrote Giménez on X.
The legislator was emphatic in his diagnosis: "The regime only wants to keep doing what it has always done: taking the aid for itself and profiting by reselling it to the people."
The tweet from the Cuban-American congressman adds to the statement issued by the U.S. State Department, which warned Havana that if it rejects its offer of $100 million in direct humanitarian aid to the people, it will have to answer to Cubans for "interfering with that critical assistance."
The document, signed by the Office of the Spokesperson, states that Washington has made "numerous private offers" to the Cuban regime, including support for free and fast satellite internet, in addition to the $100 million in humanitarian aid, all of which the Island has rejected.
The note specifies that the aid would be distributed in coordination with the Catholic Church and other reliable independent humanitarian organizations, deliberately to avoid the involvement of the Cuban state.
"The decision rests with the Cuban regime: to accept our offer of assistance or to deny critical aid that saves lives and, ultimately, to be held accountable to the Cuban people for obstructing that essential assistance," the official text states.
The State Department also emphasized that the Cuban communist system "has only served to enrich the elites and condemn the Cuban people to poverty."
On May 8, Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed from Rome that Washington had presented its humanitarian offer to the Cuban regime.
"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," declared Rubio, a day after meeting with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, where Cuba was one of the central topics.
Rubio specified that 6 million dollars had already been channeled through Cáritas Cuba and the Catholic Church—a mechanism chosen deliberately to avoid state mediation—benefiting about 24,000 people in eastern provinces devastated by Hurricane Melissa in October 2025.
Cáritas Cuba reported that it had executed 82% of the first donation of 3 million dollars, benefiting 8,800 families in Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Las Tunas, Granma, and Guantánamo.
The Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla responded on Tuesday, characterizing the offer as a "fable" and a "lie of 100 million dollars," insisting that "nobody in Cuba knows" about this supposed offer and demanding details about the source of the money, the method of delivery, and the date on which the proposal was allegedly made official.
Vice Chancellor Carlos Fernández de Cossío also characterized the proposal as a "political deal."
The regime's stance does not surprise U.S. officials.
In January, Jeremy Lewin, the acting Under Secretary of State, warned that the Cuban government "can interfere, steal, and divert" humanitarian aid supplies, thereby justifying the alternative channel through the Catholic Church.
Giménez's tweet comes in the midst of an unprecedented escalation of pressure from Washington on Havana. On May 7, Rubio announced new sanctions against GAESA, the military conglomerate that controls between 40% and 70% of the formal Cuban economy, which Rubio himself described as "the heart of Cuba's kleptocratic communist system."
The Republican politician also criticized senators from his party who oppose stronger actions against Cuba, accusing them of "never having shown much willingness to stand with the Cuban people."
Foreign companies have until June 5 to sever their ties with GAESA under the threat of secondary sanctions, representing one of the most significant economic blows dealt to the regime in decades.
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