Lifting Cuba blockade ‘simpler’ way to help than aid: president

View of San Lazaro street in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File)

The United States should lift its blockade on Cuba rather than offer aid to the island, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Thursday.

“The damage could be eased in a much simpler and faster way by lifting or relaxing the blockade, since it is known that the humanitarian situation is coldly calculated and induced,” Diaz-Canel said, referring to a worsening economic crisis in Cuba, under a U.S.-imposed fuel blockade since January.

His comments followed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s renewed offer of $100 million in aid to Cuba on the condition that the assistance be distributed by the Catholic Church, bypassing the government.