May 14, 2026
March of the Cuban people in front of the U.S. Embassy in January 2026 Photo: Yaimi Ravelo
“The U.S. government made the aid offer public through a State Department statement,” said Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla reported today that for the first time, the U.S. government has publicly formalized—through a State Department statement—an offer of aid to Cuba valued at $100 million.
However, “it remains unclear whether this will be cash or material aid, and whether it will be allocated to the people’s most urgent needs at this time, such as fuel, food, and medicine,” the Cuban foreign minister said on social media platform X.
The minister assured that “even taking into account the incongruity of the apparent generosity on the part of those who subject the Cuban people to collective punishment through economic warfare, the Cuban government does not, as a matter of practice, reject foreign aid offered in good faith and with genuine aims of cooperation, whether bilateral or multilateral.”
Nor does it have any objection to working with the Catholic Church—Rodríguez Parrilla specified—with which it has a long and positive history of joint work through cooperative efforts.
“We are willing to hear the details of the offer and how it would be implemented,” the foreign minister stated.
“We hope it will be free of political maneuvering and attempts to exploit the hardships and suffering of a people under siege.
“The best assistance the U.S. government could provide to the noble Cuban people at this time—or at any time—is to de-escalate the measures of the energy, economic, commercial, and financial blockade, which has intensified as never before in recent months, severely affecting all sectors of the Cuban economy and society.”
Since January 2026, Trump has stepped up his actions against the Cuban Revolution. He went so far as to declare the island a “threat to U.S. national security”. He has stated on multiple occasions that after Venezuela and Iran, he would attack Cuba.
On January 29, 2026, Trump signed an executive order to impose an oil blockade on Cuba. He announced high tariffs for countries that sell oil to Cuba, considering that the island represents “an extraordinary and unusual threat.”
Source: Cuba en Resumen