The United States announced today, in what appears to be the first concrete offer of humanitarian aid to Cuba, that it will send $3 million in assistance to the victims of Hurricane Melissa, through the Catholic Church.
“The United States is coordinating with the Catholic Church the distribution of $3 million in humanitarian assistance directly to those most affected in eastern Cuba by the devastation of Hurricane Melissa,” the Embassy of that country in Havana said on Facebook.
Although the mechanisms are not detailed, everything indicates that it is an operation that avoids direct mediation by the Cuban Government, which on Friday clarified that it had not yet received any formal offer, after Marco Rubio stated that the United States was “prepared to offer immediate humanitarian aid to the affected people of Cuba.”
“We only know of public statements, which are not equivalent to nor are they how aid is channeled in cases of disaster,” Carlos Fernández de Cossío, vice minister of Foreign Affairs, warned that same day in a written statement sent to the agency. The Associated Press.
On Thursday, the Cuban Government had informed who established contact with Washington to specify the conditions under which the announced assistance could be materialized.
“As a result of today’s public communications about the damage from the hurricane, we have contacted the (US) State Department and we are awaiting clarification on how and in what way they are willing to help,” said Cossío, in what was the first public and official reaction to Marco Rubio’s previous announcement.
Still this Saturday, the Minrex maintained the same statement. “We have not rejected anything and they have not offered or sent anything,” noted Tablada.
The State Department dusted off a set of general and specific licenses intended to facilitate the sending of donations to the island. These licenses allow American individuals and companies to send food, medicine and medical supplies to Cuba, and their approval could be accelerated given the catastrophic scenario that the country is going through, despite the validity of the sanctions imposed by Washington.
“While the embargo remains in effect, the United States Government prioritizes support for the Cuban people, so US legislation and regulations include exemptions and authorizations related to the export of food, medicine and other humanitarian products to Cuba, as well as disaster response,” explained the State Department.
In a fact sheet issued this Thursday on the subject, the entity assured that in cases where necessary it is possible to “accelerate” the review of license applications by private parties “to facilitate the timely export of humanitarian goods, including medical supplies, to Cuba.”
