The Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla announced this Thursday that the Cuban government is willing to hear the details of the 100 million dollar humanitarian aid offer made by the Trump Administration, marking a significant shift from the rejection stance it had maintained just two days prior.
In a message posted on X, Rodríguez stated that this is "the first time" Washington has publicly formalized the offer through a statement from the Department of State, although he noted that it is still unclear whether the aid will be in cash or in kind, or whether it will be allocated to the most urgent needs of the Cuban people: fuel, food, and medicine.
"We are willing to listen to the details of the offer and how it would be realized," wrote the chancellor, conditioning the opening on the proposal being "free from political maneuvers and attempts to take advantage of the needs and suffering of a besieged people."
The change in tone is significant. On Tuesday, Rodríguez himself had described the offer as a "fable" and a "lie," denying that any Cuban institution had received a formal proposal and rhetorically asking: "Is it a donation, a deception, or a dirty deal to undermine our independence?"
The turn coincides with the announcement this Wednesday of the complete depletion of diesel and fuel oil reserves in Cuba, as declared by Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy.
The island recorded a record electricity deficit of 2,113 MW on Wednesday, surpassing the previous high of 2,075 MW recorded in March, with power outages of up to 22 hours daily in Havana.
The origin of the offer of assistance dates back to the 45-minute meeting between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Pope León XIV at the Vatican on May 7, where Cuba was the central topic.
The next day, Rubio revealed from Rome that Washington had offered the 100 million, but that the regime had refused to distribute them to the people.
The Department of State formalized the offer on Wednesday through an official statement, specifying that the aid would be channeled through the Catholic Church—Cáritas—and independent non-governmental organizations, deliberately to avoid intermediary involvement from the Cuban state. Free access to satellite internet via Starlink was also offered.
Rubio pointed out that the regime had only allowed the distribution of 2.5 million dollars of that aid through Caritas and the Catholic Church.
The Cuban-American congressman Carlos Giménez warned that the Cuban government would seek to “steal the aid and profit by reselling it to the people”.
Rodríguez emphasized in his message that Cuba "does not practice rejecting foreign aid offered in good faith and with genuine cooperation purposes" and that it also has "no issues working with the Catholic Church, with which it has a long and positive experience of joint efforts in cooperation."
However, the chancellor insisted that "the best assistance that the US government could provide to the noble Cuban people, now and at any time, is to de-escalate the measures of the energy, economic, commercial, and financial blockade, which has intensified like never before in recent months."
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