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The government of Salvador Illa will approve this Tuesday in its Executive Council a package of 440,000 euros in humanitarian aid destined for Cuba, marking the first time in fifteen years that the Catalan administration has funded assistance to the island, as reported by the newspaper elDiario.es.
The measure addresses the severe economic and energy crisis that Cuba is experiencing, with power outages lasting between 20 and 22 hours daily in some areas, alongside an extreme shortage of fuel, food, and medicine.
Of the 440,000 euros approved, 290,000 euros will be allocated to the UN World Food Programme, with the aim of supplying community dining halls in Havana.
The remaining 150,000 euros will go to social entities and non-governmental organizations that are working on the ground in Cuba, channeled through the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation, an organization under the Generalitat.
The advisor for European Union and External Action of the Generalitat, Jaume Duch, justified the measure with these words: "Cuba is facing a serious crisis that is affecting the most basic needs of its population."
“We want to contribute, in line with the actions of other international actors, to the implementation of humanitarian efforts on the island,” added the councilor.
The financing agreement also includes support measures—yet to be quantified—for the Catalan communities in Cuba, particularly for the Society of Beneficence of Natives of Catalonia in Havana, where approximately 3,300 Catalan citizens currently reside.
The Catalan initiative joins other recent institutional assistance. Spain allocated 500,000 euros from the debt conversion fund with Cuba for the purchase of food, marking the first time this mechanism has been used for regular food expenses.
The Spanish central government also announced in February the dispatch of food and medical supplies through the UN, and the City Council of Zaragoza approved over 100,000 euros in humanitarian aid for the island this very month.
At the citizen level, the Astral sailboat from Open Arms set sail from Barcelona on May 10 carrying solar panels, medications, and food destined for the Juan Manuel Márquez Pediatric Hospital in Havana.
The crisis currently facing Cuba is described as one of the worst in its recent history. On May 14th, the electrical system recorded a capacity of only 976 MW against a demand of 3,150 MW, resulting in a deficit of 2,204 MW that left 70% of the island without electricity.
On that same day, the Cuban minister Vicente de la O Levy publicly acknowledged that Cuba was "completely out of fuel."
The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded 1,245 protests in March 2026 and 1,133 in April, a reflection of the social exhaustion in the face of a crisis that Miguel Díaz-Canel's regime has been unable to reverse after decades of failed management.
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