“Until now, the United States has not made any offer or responded to the questions that were raised about the announcement made by the Secretary of State,” said today the deputy director general of the United States General Directorate of the Cuban Foreign Ministry.
Referring to Marco Rubio’s statements that the United States “is prepared” to offer “immediate” humanitarian aid to the “people of Cuba affected” by the passage of Hurricane Melissa, Johana Tablada compared it with “other countries” and “United Nations organizations” that “did make offers and have already made them or are in the process of making them.”
Carlos Fernández de Cossío, vice minister of foreign affairs of Cuba, spoke in the same sense in a written statement sent to the agency The Associated Press: “We only know of public statements, which do not amount to nor are they how aid is channeled in disaster cases,” he said.
Reactions
The first reaction to Rubio’s announcement from the Cuban government came precisely from Cossío. “As a result of public communications today 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,” the vice chancellor stated on his social networks.
Cuba contacts the US to specify the aid offered to victims of Hurricane Melissa
Hours later, from the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba there was an obvious change in tone to address this issue: “Unworthy offer of help to victims of hurricane @SecRubio,” wrote Morales Ojeda, member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the PCC.
“No alms or conditions“, published in X the Cuban ambassador to Belgium and to the European Union, Juan Antonio Fernández Palacios.
Cossío speaks of “contacts” with the US government; Morales Ojeda is outraged by the offer of help
Also to Cuba
Initially, the head of US diplomacy, of Cuban origin, had left Cuba off the list, ensuring that the US was in “close contact with the governments of Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas” due to the ravages of the Melissa and that US rescue teams were heading to the affected areas.
The US excludes Cuba from its aid plan to the Caribbean after the passage of Hurricane Melissa
Subsequently, in his message offering aid to Cuba, Rubio did not provide details about how this aid would be coordinated with the Havana government, whether it would have to formally request it from the Administration or whether there are ways to make it effective.
The State Department communicated from its website that it was prepared to provide immediate humanitarian assistance, “both directly and through local partners who can distribute it more effectively to those who need it.”
“U.S. law includes exemptions and authorizations for private donations of food, medicine and other humanitarian goods to Cuba, as well as disaster response. We encourage those who wish to directly support the Cuban people to contact us if they have any questions. You can send your questions to [email protected].”
No extraordinary conditions
“In no case has the Cuban government set extraordinary conditions. In recent years, in the face of disaster situations, the United States has made offers in a respectful manner for Cuba and the Cubans, which have materialized,” said Tablada.
He went on to say that “in terms of people and organizations in the United States that are willing and interested in offering help, in general, to the victims or their families, or to specific people and groups, there are several avenues to do so and those avenues are working, those avenues work.”
And he added: “Naturally, they have to overcome restrictions imposed on them by the United States government.”
