{"id":15151,"date":"2026-07-23T23:55:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T18:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15151"},"modified":"2026-07-23T23:55:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T18:55:42","slug":"u-s-monitors-catholic-church-distribution-of-aid-in-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15151","title":{"rendered":"U.S. monitors Catholic Church distribution of aid in Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/8191784830774\/2026\/i\/17848322005180\/v1.5\/US-monitors-Catholic-Church-distribution-of-aid-in-Cuba.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Workers load a cargo plane with humanitarian aid destined for Cuba at the 7 Air\/World Freight Service Warehouse in the Miami International Airport in Florida on Tuesday. The United States launched the first humanitarian aid flight from Miami to Havana, delivering food and hygiene supplies as part of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio&#8217;s $100 million assistance initiative for the Cuban people. Photo by Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich\/EPA<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">July 23 (UPI) &#8212;<\/span> The head of the U.S. mission in Cuba met with the C\u00e1ritas Cuba director Wednesday as the Catholic charity began distributing humanitarian aid sent by President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/Donald_Trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Donald Trump\" class=\"tpstyle\">Donald Trump<\/a>&#8216;s administration to vulnerable families in western Cuba, the U.S. Embassy in Havana said.<\/p>\n<p>The meeting between Mike Hammer and Carmen Mar\u00eda Nodal Mart\u00ednez came a day after the first shipment from a $100 million humanitarian assistance package arrived in Havana. it was announced in May by Secretary of State <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/Marco_Rubio\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Marco Rubio\" class=\"tpstyle\">Marco Rubio<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>The shipment includes prepackaged food and hygiene kits for about 700 families, the U.S. State Department said. Catholic Relief Services is distributing the aid in coordination with the Catholic Church and C\u00e1ritas Cuba. <\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-block embed-object\" contenteditable=\"false\" readonly=\"readonly\"><emb><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p>En la ocasi\u00f3n de la llegada ayer \u00e0 La Habana de ayuda humanitaria procedente de la Administraci\u00f3n Trump para los Cubanos mas necesitados, nuestro Jefe de Misi\u00f3n Mike Hammer se reuni\u00f3 con la Directora de C\u00e1ritas Cuba Carmen Maria Nodal Martinez. Hablaron sobre la entrega que se&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ABTKYg4cM2\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/ABTKYg4cM2<\/a>\u2014 Embajada de los Estados Unidos en Cuba (@USEmbCuba) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/USEmbCuba\/status\/2079997203859550469?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">July 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p> <\/emb><\/div>\n<p>The U.S. Embassy said Hammer and Nodal reviewed the distribution process through Catholic parishes and planned visits to volunteers and beneficiaries as the humanitarian program expands across the island.\n<\/p>\n<p>The first deliveries began in the municipalities of Bejucal, in Mayabeque province, and Alqu\u00edzar, in Artemisa province, targeting families previously identified by local communities <a href=\"https:\/\/caritascuba.org\/comienza-en-bejucal-y-alquizar-entrega-de-ayuda-del-gobierno-de-estados-unidos\/\" target=\"_blank\">as the most vulnerable.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>C\u00e1ritas Cuba confirmed that volunteers from parish communities started to deliver the food and hygiene kits on Wednesday. The organization said the assistance is being distributed according to humanitarian vulnerability criteria, with an emphasis on transparency throughout the distribution process.<\/p>\n<p>According to the State Department, the packages contain rice, beans, pasta, canned tuna and sardines, cooking oil, sugar and salt, along with soap, detergent, toothbrushes, sanitary pads, water purification tablets, solar lamps and other household supplies intended to meet a family&#8217;s basic needs for about 10 days.<\/p>\n<p>Washington has said it is using Catholic Relief Services, C\u00e1ritas Cuba and the Catholic Church to ensure the aid reaches recipients directly without being diverted by the Cuban government. State Department officials said they will closely monitor the distribution process to prevent the assistance from being misappropriated.<\/p>\n<p>Cuba authorized the shipment&#8217;s entry, but government officials criticized Washington for providing humanitarian assistance while maintaining sanctions and what Havana describes as a de facto oil embargo that has worsened the island&#8217;s economic crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Cuba&#8217;s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment acknowledged receiving the shipment, while reiterating that U.S. restrictions continue to affect the country&#8217;s economy.\n<\/p>\n<p>Several Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives who recently visited Cuba have also called on Washington to lift the restrictions, arguing they amount to collective punishment.<\/p>\n<p>Rubio and other U.S. officials have rejected that criticism, arguing that Cuba&#8217;s ruling elite and the military-run conglomerate GAESA have diverted the country&#8217;s resources and prioritized scarce fuel supplies for the government and its security apparatus rather than the general population.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Workers load a cargo plane with humanitarian aid destined for Cuba at the 7 Air\/World Freight Service Warehouse in the Miami International Airport in Florida on Tuesday. The United States launched the first humanitarian aid flight from Miami to Havana, delivering food and hygiene supplies as part of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio&#8217;s $100&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/i\/8191784830774\/2026\/1\/17848322005180\/v1.5\/US-monitors-Catholic-Church-distribution-of-aid-in-Cuba.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}