MADRID: Spain said Monday it will use UN channels to send humanitarian aid to Cuba, which is suffering an acute economic crisis worsened by a de facto US fuel blockade.
“Spain will provide humanitarian aid ... to Cuba through the United Nations system in the form of food and essential health products,” the foreign ministry said in a statement following a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries in Madrid.
The announcement follows the dispatch by Mexico of 800 tons of humanitarian aid to Cuba, which arrived on two Mexican navy ships late last week.
Cuba’s economic straits have worsened with moves by US President Donald Trump to economically strangle the Caribbean country.
Trump has vowed to cut off oil and fuel deliveries to Cuba, following the US military operation last month to attack Venezuela’s capital Caracas and grab leader Nicolas Maduro. Venezuela had been Cuba’s main supplier of oil.
The United Nations said on Friday it was deeply alarmed by the crisis unfolding in Cuba.
Cuba’s government — which had already been grappling with frequent power cuts and a lack of food and medicine — has ordered a series of emergency measures from Monday, including restrictions on fuel sales and reduced public transport.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares and Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez discussed “the current situation in Cuba,” the foreign ministry statement said, without giving any details.
Rodriguez, on X, said that in the meeting the two stressed the desire “to bolster political, economic-trade and cooperation dialogue to the benefit of both countries.”
He criticized “the violations of peace, security and international law and the increasing hostility of the United States against Cuba.”
The Cuban foreign minister’s short stop in Madrid followed visits to China and Vietnam.