U.S., Catholic Relief Services send first Cuba aid flight under Rubio plan

The United States and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) sent the first flight with humanitarian aid to Cuba under Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s $100 million assistance plan.

In partnership with the Catholic Church and Caritas Cuba, the kits of prepackaged food and hygiene kits for up to 700 Cuban families will be delivered by CRS — the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the U.S.

“This partnership builds upon the success of the Department’s program last year with CRS and Caritas Cuba to deliver $9 million in direct support to the island following Hurricane Melissa,” according to a U.S. Department of State statement.

“Building on the success of the previous program, the direct delivery of humanitarian commodities by local parish representatives in the island will ensure critical U.S. assistance reaches everyday Cubans in need, without any opportunity for regime diversion or theft,” the department said.

CRS sent the flight on July 21 from Miami with Jeremy Lewin, Rubio’s senior adviser and director of foreign assistance, and Viviana Bovo, senior adviser for the department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.

The supplies sent are the first humanitarian relief sent under Rubio’s commitment of $100 million in humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people, as they “are suffering from the consequences of the Communist regime’s kleptocracy, brutality, and economic incompetence,” the statement said.

The aid is part of a $60 million award to CRS from the department’s $100 million fund for expanding humanitarian assistance to vulnerable families across Cuba.

“The award will enable CRS, in partnership with Caritas Cuba, to provide emergency food and hygiene supplies to nearly 200,000 households, or more than half a million people, across the country and essential household items — including mattresses and blankets — to another 7,000 people who need them,” CRS said in a press release.

“Families in Cuba are facing growing hardship as they struggle to put food on the table, access clean water and meet other basic needs,” said Sean Callahan, CRS president and CEO, in the press release.

“This support will allow CRS and our long-standing partner, Caritas Cuba, to significantly expand humanitarian assistance through the Catholic Churchʼs trusted network, reaching vulnerable families with the help they urgently need.”