Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel said Cuba would not turn away humanitarian aid on the scale offered by the United States, though he insisted that “lifting or easing the embargo” would bring the island greater relief.
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In a message posted on his X account, Díaz-Canel said any international assistance, “including from the U.S.,” would not be refused.
“If the U.S. government truly is willing to provide the aid in the amounts it announces, and in full compliance with universally recognized humanitarian-aid practices, it will find no obstacles or ingratitude from Cuba — however inconsistent and paradoxical the offer may be to a people that the U.S. government itself systematically and mercilessly subjects to collective punishment,” he wrote.
The president said that “the priorities are more than obvious: fuel, food and medicine,” while again urging the United States to eliminate or soften its restrictive measures.
“For that matter, the harm could be eased more easily and quickly by lifting or easing the embargo, since it’s well known that the humanitarian situation is coldly calculated and engineered,” he added.
Díaz-Canel also said the experience they have had with “the Catholic Church has been rich and productive.”
The message came a day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an exclusive interview with NBC News that Cuba had not accepted an offer of a $100 million donation.
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“We’re offering the Cuban people $100 million in humanitarian aid, and the regime is rejecting it,” Rubio said.
“It’s important for the Cuban people to know that right now there is food, medicine, humanitarian assistance worth more than $100 million from the United States that the regime is not allowing to be distributed,” he said.
For his part, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said on X that the Cuban government would be willing to hear the details of the offer.
“We are willing to hear the terms of the offer and how it would be carried out. We hope it is free of political maneuvering and attempts to take advantage of the shortages and suffering of a people under siege,” he wrote.
This story was translated from Spanish with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool. An NBC 6 editor reviewed the translation.
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