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U.S. assesses aid to Cuba after hurricane and request from Havana

U.S. assesses aid to Cuba after hurricane and request from Havana

 


The Biden administration has ongoing conversations with the Cuban government about the humanitarian needs of the Cuban people following the island’s devastation caused by Hurricane Ian, a senior State Department official said Wednesday.

The talks follow a rare request for emergency aid from the Havana government last week after Cuba suffered an island-wide loss of power, flooding and extensive damage after its western third was directly hit by Ian as he made his way to Florida.

Neither side has specified what kind of aid it is. The State Department official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomatic efforts.

But the talks mark a new stage in sporadic outreach efforts following President Donald Trump’s rollback of the normalization of ties that began in 2015, when Barack Obama renewed US diplomatic ties with the communist government of Havana more than five decades after their split.

President Biden campaigned on a pledge to ease new sanctions and isolation of Cuba imposed by Trump, who also reinstated Cuba’s designation by the United States as a state sponsor of terrorism.

The Bidens administration has made only minor adjustments to the relationship, however, including allowing more US commercial flights to the island, easing restrictions on sending remittances to family members through Cuban Americans and allowing certain categories of American citizens to travel there. Recently, the administration reversed an earlier refusal to issue a Treasury Department license to a Maryland-based producer of electric scooters and bicycles to private companies in Cuba. The license was granted under an exception to existing trade restrictions for environmental quality reasons.

Cuba’s appeal for humanitarian aid comes as the island, even before the storm and a deadly fire that hit a major Cuban oil storage facility in August, has struggled with a major economic crisis, including shortages of food and fuel. Last week saw the first significant street protests, in the capital and other cities, since large anti-government protests were put down by a violent security response in July 2021.

Protests over the past week appeared to be largely a response to the island-wide blackout and general economic unrest, although songs of freedom were also heard. The protests reportedly died down when power was restored to some areas, although frequent power cuts continue to occur. There are also sporadic outages in internet service, repeatedly attributed by Cubans to the electricity problem and possible government intervention.

Physical proximity, with only 90 miles separating the two countries, means that any hurricane affecting Cuba is likely to also target the United States. Havana has rebuffed US offers of aid following previous major storms. In 2005, the United States rejected a Cuban offer to send doctors to New Orleans to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The Biden administration offered unspecified technical assistance following a fire sparked by lightning in August at a fuel storage facility in the city of Matanzas, east of Havana. The massive fire continued for days and worsened the overall fuel shortage on the island. The Cuban government said it was grateful but did not act on the offer beyond reportedly accepting some firefighting equipment.

The two governments also held talks regarding the record number of Cubans seeking admission to the United States across the Mexican border. In April, according to unpublished U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures obtained by The Washington Post, CBP was on course to apprehend more than 155,000 Cubans in the current fiscal year, nearly four times the 2021 total and a twelvefold increase from 2020.

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2/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/05/cuba-hurricane-ian-us-aid/

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