US says Cuba accepted offer of humanitarian aid

“They say they accepted. Let’s see if that means (it will work),” Rubio told reporters in Miami, according to information from the Associated Press.

“We are not going to provide humanitarian aid that ends up in the hands of their (the Cuban regime’s) military company. And then they take this material, sell it in dollar stores and pocket the money,” Rubio said.

The Donald Trump administration had offered US$100 million in humanitarian aid to Cuba, under the condition that such aid be distributed through the Catholic Church and other independent organizations and not by the Cuban regime.

Cuban dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel had said before Rubio’s statement this Thursday that the Castro dictatorship would accept the aid “if the US government is truly willing to provide assistance in the announced amount and in full compliance with universally recognized humanitarian aid practices.”

Rubio’s comment was made one day after the American government announced the indictment of former Cuban dictator Raúl Castro for the deaths of four Cuban-American activists in the shooting down of two civilian planes in 1996, raising tensions between the two countries.