The Trump administration is offering Cuba $100 million in humanitarian aid in exchange for reforms on the communist island, where the economic situation is growing even more dire.
The State Department is reiterating that the U.S. is ready to deliver the aid through the Roman Catholic Church and other NGOs. Meanwhile, the Trump administration wants to see what it calls “meaningful” political and economic liberalization in Cuba.
The humanitarian assistance seems especially urgent now because Cuba’s regime said it has run out of oil and diesel fuel thanks to President Trump’s de facto oil blockade of the island.
But Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote on X this week that while Cuba’s regime is “disposed to dialogue on equal terms, we will keep resisting.”
The State Department accused Cuba of denying its people access to “life-saving” relief. Díaz-Canel accused the U.S. of engineering a “genocidal blockade.”
Either way, Cuba’s current economic crisis is arguably the worst in the country’s history.
READ MORE: AP: U.S. is not looking at imminent military action in Cuba despite Trump threats
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