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The chancellor Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla announced this Thursday that the Cuban government is willing to hear the details of the $100 million 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 formally made the offer public through a statement from the State Department, although he noted that it is still unclear whether the aid will be in cash or in kind, or whether it will be directed to the most urgent needs of the Cuban people: fuel, food, and medicine.
"We are willing to hear the details of the offer and how it would be realized," the chancellor wrote, conditioning the openness on the proposal being "free of political maneuvers and attempts to exploit the hardships and suffering of a people under siege."
The change in tone is significant. On Tuesday, Rodríguez himself referred to the offer as a "fable" and "lie," denying that any Cuban institution had received a formal proposal and rhetorically asking: "Could it be a donation, a deception, or a dirty business to curtail our independence?"
The shift coincides with the announcement this Wednesday of the complete depletion of diesel and fuel oil reserves in Cuba, as stated by Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy.
The island recorded a record electric deficit of 2,113 MW on Wednesday, surpassing the previous high of 2,075 MW recorded in March, with blackouts lasting up to 22 hours a day in Havana.
The origin of the offer for assistance dates back to the 45-minute meeting between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Pope Leon XIV at the Vatican on May 7, where Cuba was the main topic.
The next day, Rubio revealed from Rome that Washington had offered the 100 million, but that the regime had refused to distribute it to the people.
The State Department formalized the offer on Wednesday through an official statement, specifying that the aid would be channeled through the Catholic Church — Caritas — and independent non-governmental organizations, deliberately to avoid the mediation of the Cuban state. Satellite internet access via Starlink was also offered free of charge.
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 noted in his message that Cuba "does not practice rejecting foreign aid offered in good faith and with genuine cooperation intentions" and that it also has "no issues working with the Catholic Church, with which it has a long and positive experience of joint cooperation efforts."
However, the chancellor insisted that "the best assistance the US government could provide to the noble Cuban people at this time and at any time is to de-escalate the measures of the energy, economic, commercial, and financial blockade, which has intensified more than ever in recent months."
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