Madrid/A shipment of humanitarian aid sent by the United States arrived this Thursday at the José Martí International Airport in Havana, destined for vulnerable families in the diocese of Pinar del Río. Cáritas Cuba reported that the shipment includes 700 food kits and another 700 hygiene modules.
The diocesan bishop, Juan de Dios Hernández Ruiz, and the director of Cáritas Pinar del Río, Abel Castillo López, received the cargo at the air terminal along with volunteers and airport staff. The distribution will be made in the parish of Candelaria and in the community of Quiebra Hacha, belonging to the parish of Mariel. Although they are part of the Pinar del Río diocese, both communities are in the province of Artemisa.
Cáritas volunteers previously identified the beneficiary families and coordinated the reception and delivery of the donation. The organization says that the distribution will be guided “by transparency, equity and social justice.”
The aid will prioritize elderly people who live alone; pregnant or breastfeeding women with identified risks; children under five years of age in vulnerable situations, and people with disabilities or bedridden people who cannot take care of themselves.
We are fully aware that we cannot reach everyone, and that is a reality that hurts us. Resources are limited and those who need it most are prioritized
In a statement, Hernández Ruiz acknowledged the limits of the shipment: “As a Church, we are fully aware that we cannot reach everyone, and that is a reality that hurts us. Resources are limited and priority is given to those who need it most.”
The shipment is part of the $100 million humanitarian aid package announced by Washington in May. Of that amount, 60 million would be channeled by the Catholic Church, with the collaboration of Cáritas Cuba and Catholic Relief Services; The other 40 million would be in charge of other organizations.
The first shipment of 18 tons arrived in Havana last July. In September, the US Embassy announced that aid would also reach Pinar del Río and four other provinces: Camagüey, Ciego de Ávila, Cienfuegos and Matanzas. Days before, Cáritas had received another shipment of 700 food and hygiene modules in Santa Clara, destined for communities in Villa Clara.
So far in October, the Dioceses of the Camagüey province and the Gaspar parish in Ciego de Ávila, also in the central zone, have also received the shipments.
The US State Department announced in May that the aid worth $100 million would be “direct humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people, which would be distributed in coordination with the Catholic Church and other independent and reliable humanitarian organizations.”
The arrival of the donations takes place at a time of heightened verbal confrontation between Havana and Washington, considered the greatest tension in their controversial relations in decades.
The aid comes in the midst of a deep economic crisis that the Island has been suffering for six years, aggravated by the pandemic, failed national policies and US sanctions. The crisis is reflected in shortages of food, fuel and medicine, rampant inflation, prolonged blackouts and growing dollarization.
Since January, Washington has added a “maximum pressure” policy, which includes an oil fence and, since May, secondary measures against vital sectors of the Cuban regime’s economy, which have aggravated the economic and energy crisis.
