The head of the United States diplomatic mission in Cuba, Mike Hammer, met this Sunday with a delegation from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) led by Cardinal Sean O'Malley, emeritus archbishop of Boston, and Archbishop Borys Gudziak, as confirmed by the U.S. Embassy in Cuba via its X account.
The meeting addressed the situation in Cuba and the coordination of humanitarian aid shipments from the Trump Administration channeled through Cáritas Cuba to the most vulnerable sectors of the population.
The meeting took place a day after the same delegation was received by Miguel Díaz-Canel at the Palace of Conventions in Havana, where the Cuban leader expressed gratitude, according to the official Presidential website, "for the role of the Church and its organizations in facilitating humanitarian aid coming from various countries."
In that meeting with Díaz-Canel, Christopher Ljungquist, director of the International Justice and Peace Office of the USCCB, and Mario Jesús Paredes, executive president of SOMOS Community Care, also participated, along with Caridad Diego Bello, head of the Office of Religious Affairs of the Communist Party, and Carlos Fernández de Cossío, deputy minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A notable ecclesiastical presence at the meeting was that of Monsignor Juan Gabriel Díaz Ruiz, recently appointed Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba by Pope Leo XIV on November 7, during one of his first public acts in the new position.
The visit of the U.S. bishops is part of the 100 million dollars humanitarian aid program announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in May 2026 after meeting with Pope Leo XIV in Rome.
Of that total, 60 million dollars are being channeled through Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Cáritas Cuba, aiming to reach nearly 200,000 households — over 500,000 people — across the country.
The mechanism explicitly excludes the Cuban government and the military conglomerate GAESA: CRS acquires supplies in the United States, and Cáritas Cuba distributes them directly through parishes and home visits.
The first deliveries of the program began in July 2026 in Bejucal and Alquízar; by this month, distribution had already reached provinces such as Havana, Matanzas, Villa Clara, and Camagüey.
The Cuban regime presented the bishops' visit as an expression of "respectful ties" with the Catholic Church, without making any public reference to the situation of political prisoners.
This is not the first time O'Malley has been involved in Cuban affairs. In September 2021, amid the repression following the 11J protests, the cardinal visited Havana and called for clemency for those detained.
In April 2023, the Secretary of the Cuban Episcopal Conference, Ariel Suárez, told Reuters that in a meeting with Díaz-Canel, the situation of political prisoners was discussed and that "the door was open" to an amnesty, a promise that the regime never fulfilled.
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