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On May 13, 2026, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the United States would provide $100 million in humanitarian assistance to Cuba. However, there was a significant condition attached to this offer. The Cuban government and its military would not be allowed to manage the distribution of these resources. Instead, the aid must be delivered by humanitarian organizations and faith-based partners, such as Caritas, which is the Catholic Church’s international aid network. Other nonprofit groups could also handle the distribution. In simple terms, the United States was willing to help the Cuban people, but it did not trust the Cuban government to distribute the supplies fairly.
A week later, on May 20, Rubio reinforced these conditions during a five-minute video message directed at the Cuban people. The message was released on Cuban Independence Day. In his remarks, Rubio blamed Cuba’s severe economic problems and chronic energy shortages on its own government. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel responded by stating that Cuba would accept the American aid "without ingratitude." At the same time, he criticized the new approach and urged the United States to lift or ease the decades-old economic embargo. The timing of the American offer was particularly sensitive because it coincided with the U.S. indictment of Raúl Castro. He is a former Cuban president who helped lead the revolution that brought his brother, Fidel Castro, to power in 1959.
The Trump administration’s restriction on who can distribute the aid may sound unusual to some observers. However, as a scholar of Cuban studies and a former humanitarian aid worker, I have seen firsthand how faith-based organizations have long played a critical role in reaching Cuban families when formal government systems fall short.
You might wonder whether religious groups and other nonprofits are prepared to distribute $100 million in humanitarian aid inside Cuba. Evidence suggests that this arrangement would likely work. The Catholic Church maintains one of the strongest national networks in Cuba outside of the government. Furthermore, this is not the first time it has coordinated the distribution of humanitarian aid.
For several months after Hurricane Melissa hammered the island’s eastern provinces in 2025, Washington supported smaller humanitarian shipments to Cuba. The United States sent that assistance through the church. From 2011 to 2017, I watched church networks become lifelines for the most vulnerable citizens. These networks delivered aid from governments, humanitarian organizations, and faith-based groups directly into communities. They also opened pathways beyond the capital city, Havana, into rural areas where the need is often greatest.
Not all of these faith-based groups are tied to the Catholic Church. Protestant and evangelical churches, including Baptist and Assemblies of God communities, maintain extensive networks across Cuba. I observed that foreign aid arriving in Havana did not automatically reach rural provinces such as Holguín or Santiago de Cuba. Getting aid to those areas required trucks, fuel, warehouses, local partners, and logistical assets. Cuba lacked these resources even during the earlier period and has much shorter supplies now.
I worked directly with vulnerable communities in the aftermath of hurricanes and other disasters in Cuba. My role was to help deliver lifesaving aid, including food and clean water, to those in the most need. That experience makes me certain that other faith-based networks could potentially play a critical role in delivering U.S. humanitarian aid. They have done this in years past and in the spring of 2026.
Many of Cuba’s faith-based groups operate through house churches. These are small congregations that meet inside private homes instead of in formal church buildings. They emerged because the Cuban government did not allow anyone to build new churches after a constitutional change in 1992. That change led to somewhat more freedom for worshippers, but new local congregations could still only form if they were based in houses. House churches are now deeply connected to their communities. Together, these networks often reach rural areas and vulnerable families that more formal systems struggle to serve.
After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Cubans endured years of severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine, and basic supplies. These shortages hobbled transportation and many basic services. Daily life changed dramatically, and families had to find new ways to survive with very little. Until then, the Soviet Union had met Cuba’s demand for oil in exchange for shipments of Cuban sugar. The Cuban government euphemistically called that era of economic collapse a “Special Period in a Time of Peace.”
Starting in the late 1990s, Venezuela began to supply Cuba with deeply discounted oil. This arrangement lasted until January 2026, when the United States ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Following this political change, the United States subsequently imposed an oil blockade on Cuba. Losing access to oil has created a major crisis. Without fuel, Cuba’s government is unable to operate power plants, buses, water pumping systems, food refrigeration, hospitals, schools, and agriculture at full capacity.
Many Cubans are enduring frequent, long blackouts. They are unable to get to work or travel almost anywhere. They are losing access to healthcare, and food insecurity is growing rapidly. In short, Cuba is facing a major human-made disaster in 2026. This crisis has occurred without being hit by a hurricane, earthquake, or other common natural disaster. Instead, it is the result of politics and foreign policy.
Many Cuban Americans support sending U.S. humanitarian aid to Cuba, provided that it reaches ordinary Cubans and does not strengthen the Cuban government. Bypassing Cuban authorities by distributing assistance via faith-based groups would be appealing to Cuban Americans. They have long accused Havana of using foreign assistance from other sources to maintain their grip on power.
Based on my own experience on the ground after disasters in Cuba, I believe that if aid is delivered through trusted and transparent channels, it could save lives and reduce suffering. And if the aid is never delivered, I would expect that the people who need help most would once again pay the highest price.