An elderly Cuban identified as Georgina Perera posted a video on Facebook criticizing the offer of 100 million dollars in humanitarian aid that the Trump administration proposed for Cuba, and her words strongly resonated within the exile community.
"This is one of the biggest crazes. Giving 100 million dollars to the Cuban dictatorship. What church or what the hell? The ones in charge there are the communists," says the woman in the clip that lasts just over a minute.
Perera does not limit herself to rejecting the proposal in abstract; she contrasts it with her own reality as a retiree in the United States.
"I worked for 39 years in this country and I receive a check that hardly allows me to afford even a steak because of the high prices of food, gasoline, everything," he says with visible indignation.
The woman also directly targets the Secretary of State and the president: "What is it that Marco Rubio has in his head? What has he made Trump believe? It has to be that, that he has put ideas in his head that are not true. Or maybe they don’t understand what the communists in Cuba are like. Hey, this is a lack of respect."
The proposal that triggered his reaction was formally announced by the State Department on May 13, conditional upon the distribution being carried out through the Catholic Church and independent organizations, without the mediation of the Cuban regime.
Rubio had mentioned the figure on May 8 from Rome, after meeting with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, and revealed that 6 million dollars had already been channeled through Caritas Cuba in response to Hurricane Melissa, which devastated the eastern part of the island in October 2025.
Cáritas Cuba reported that it had executed 82% of an initial donation of 3 million dollars, benefiting approximately 8,800 families in Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Las Tunas, Granma, and Guantánamo.
The reaction of the Cuban regime was erratic. The Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez labeled the offer as a "fable" and "lie" on May 12, but two days later the government changed its position and stated it was "willing to listen" to the details.
Congressman Carlos Giménez was more straightforward in his assessment: he warned that the regime only wants to "steal the aid and profit by reselling it to the people."
The video by Perera expresses a real tension within the Cuban exile community: while some support aid reaching the island through independent channels, others reject any flow of money to the island on the grounds that it ultimately legitimizes or benefits the dictatorship.
Last Monday, Bruno Rodríguez acknowledged that a dialogue process had already begun regarding the aid, suggesting that negotiations are progressing despite the opposition from certain exile groups and the regime's own contradictions.
Filed under: