United Nations/The lack of fuel that Cuba is experiencing prevents the distribution of 6.3 million dollars in essential humanitarian products, the UN resident coordinator for Cuba, Francisco Pichón, warned this Monday.
“I am aware that some 170 containers of essential humanitarian products that have already arrived in Cuba, representing some $6.3 million, are not reaching the beneficiaries due to fuel shortages,” Pichón declared during the daily press conference of UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.
As he explained, the UN mission on the island is carrying out “a bidding process to hire private operators capable of importing fuel into the country.”
“We are considering all options, including collaboration with the non-state sector or the private sector in Cuba, which have been authorized and have been able to receive some limited supplies of fuel,” he noted.
“We are considering all options, including collaboration with the non-state sector or the private sector in Cuba, which have been authorized and have been able to receive some supplies”
Asked if the United Nations has been authorized to import gasoline, Pichón stated that “there are ongoing conversations” between the organization and US representatives before the organization “to try to reach an agreement that allows fuel to be brought to Cuba.”
“Are conversations are ongoing and we hope to soon have a solution that guarantees the operational viability of our entire plan,” he added.
Cuba has only received, since the beginning of January, one shipment of oil from Russia, which, “according to what they said, is about 100,000 tons or about 700,000 barrels,” which can cover about 12 or 13 days.
“Mexico is one of the States that has been most involved in finding a solution to guarantee that there is access to humanitarian oil,” he said after confirming that “no Venezuelan fuel has arrived in the country.”
Last January, the United States stopped oil shipments from Venezuela to Cuba after the arrest of Nicolás Maduro and President Donald Trump threatened with tariffs on those countries that supplied it with crude oil, after stating that he would not let a drop of crude oil reach the Island.
On March 31, the Russian tanker arrived on the island Anatoly Kolodkin with the cargo mentioned by Pichón and without the United States preventing it. Trump had stated, when asked about it, that he did not care if Russia or any other country sent oil to Cuba.
However, the White House maintained that there is no such free way and that it will decide “case by case” whether to allow it.
