Rubio eyes Vatican role in expanding humanitarian aid to Cuba
'We're willing to give more humanitarian aid to Cuba... distributed through the church, but the Cuban regime has to allow us to do it,' Rubio said.
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to discuss the delivery of humanitarian aid to Cuba when he meets with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on May 7, providing a potential lifeline to average Cubans struggling through an economic collapse intensified by U.S. pressure tactics.
Rubio said at a May 5 briefing at the White House, hours after he was photographed standing in front of a map of Cuba at the headquarters of U.S. Southern Command, that he'd speak to the pope, the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church, about the distribution of aid.
The Catholic Church has warned Cuba is on the verge of a humanitarian disaster amid a severe economic crisis.
"We're willing to give more humanitarian aid to Cuba... distributed through the church, but the Cuban regime has to allow us to do it," Rubio said. "They won't allow us to give their own people more humanitarian aid, and we're willing to do it through the church."
The U.S. maintains a strict trade embargo against Cuba and the Trump administration has cut off most shipments of oil to the communist-run island as a part of a monthslong pressure campaign against the Cuban government. Trump's administration aims to bring about vast political and economic changes inside the country through the blockade, which has been accompanied by routine threats of military action.
Rubio is a Cuban American and longstanding critic of the Cuban regime. He said May 5 that the island nation, located just 90 miles south of the United States, is a "failed state" with an economic model that "doesn't work" and leadership that can't fix the problem.
"We have 90 miles from our shores a failed state that also happens to be friendly territory for some of our adversaries," he said. "So it's an unacceptable status quo."
Rubio had just returned from Miami, where he visited Southern Command, the combatant command that oversees U.S. military actions in Latin America. SOUTHCOM's social media account turned heads not long before Rubio's briefing with a photo it published of him standing in front of a map of Cuba.
At the White House podium, Rubio dismissed the chatter. He said he was addressing U.S. ambassadors in the Western Hemisphere, "and there just happened to be a map of Cuba."
"I said it'd be good if we took a picture in front of that map because it's like the closest thing to SOUTHCOM to the United States. So there it is," Rubio said.
Trump has talked about a “friendly takeover” of Cuba. Speaking May 1 in Palm Beach, the president suggested once again that Cuba could be next on his list for military action after the war with Iran comes to an end.
“We’ll finish one first. I like to finish a job,” Trump said, before musing about parking an aircraft carrier “100 yards offshore” from Cuba on its way back from Iran. “They’ll say: ‘Thank you very much. We give up,’” Trump said of the Cubans.