Cuba The ” The However, the two countries have largely cut off supplies since US President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on countries that send fuel to Cuba.Earlier on Thursday, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said Cuba was “ready to hear the details of the US aid proposal and how it would be implemented”.On Wednesday, the US state department said it was renewing an offer to “provide generous assistance to the Cuban people”.Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said that Havana had rejected a previous US offer of humanitarian aid worth $100m (PS74m), a claim Cuba denied.In its statement, the US state department repeated its offer but made it clear that the aid would have to be distributed “in coordination with the Catholic Church and other reliable independent humanitarian organisations”, bypassing the Cuban government.EPA/ShutterstockIt added that the decision now rested with the Cuban regime “to accept our offer of assistance or deny critical life-saving aid and ultimately be accountable to the Cuban people for standing in the way of critical assistance”.In his response, Cuban Foreign Minister Rodriguez said it was unclear whether the US aid offer would be in cash or in-kind assistance.He added that “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”.He added that the best way the US could help Cuba would be to “de-escalate energy, economic, commercial, and financial blockade measures, which have intensified as never before in recent months”.Separately, BBC’s US partner, CBS News, has reported on the US preparing to indict former President Raul Castro and his brother Fidel in connection with the downing of planes 30 years ago, according to US officials knowledgable on the matter.The potential indictment concerns Cuba’s 1996 deadly shooting down of a plane flown by the humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue over international waters.It is another example of the US continuing to apply pressure on the Cuban government. The ” “This dramatic worsening has a single cause: the genocidal energy blockade to which the United States subjects our country, threatening irrational tariffs against any nation that supplies us with fuel,” he wrote on social media.ReutersWashington’s blockade on the country ramped up in early May when the US imposed fresh sanctions on senior Cuban officials it accused of committing human rights abuses.Rodriguez called the sanctions “illegal and abusive”.Additional reporting by Harry SekulichRussian oil tanker docks in Cuba ending near-total blockadeWhy Trump means the Cuban Revolution faces its biggest threat yetBBC looks at how Cubans are living with fuel shortagesUnited StatesCuba
