Cuba considers $100m US aid offer as energy crisis worsens

The Cuban government says it is open to reviewing a US offer of $100m (£74m) in aid, hours after rare protests over worsening power cuts erupted on the Communist-run island.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said on Thursday that Cuba was "ready to hear the details of the proposal and how it would be implemented".

The shortages have been exacerbated by a US-imposed blockade of oil which has squeezed the country's supplies of essentials such as diesel and fuel oil.

Hospitals have been unable to function normally, and schools and government offices have been forced to close. Tourism, an economic engine for Cuba, has also been impacted.

Cuba has in the past relied on Venezuela and Mexico to supply oil to its refinery system. However, the two countries have largely cut off supplies since US President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on countries that send fuel to Cuba.

On Wednesday, the US state department said it was renewing an offer to "provide generous assistance to the Cuban people".

Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said that Havana had rejected a previous US offer of humanitarian aid worth $100m (£74m), a claim Cuba denied.

In its statement, the US state department repeated its offer but made it clear that the aid would have to be distributed "in coordination with the Catholic Church and other reliable independent humanitarian organisations", bypassing the Cuban government.

It added that the decision now rested with the Cuban regime "to accept our offer of assistance or deny critical living-saving aid and ultimately be accountable to the Cuban people for standing in the way of critical assistance".

In his response, Cuban Foreign Minister Rodríguez said it was unclear whether the US aid offer would be in cash or in-kind assistance.

He added that "the Cuban government does not, as a matter of practice, reject foreign aid offered in good faith and with genuine aims of cooperation, whether bilateral or multilateral".

He added that the best way the US could help Cuba would be to "de-escalate energy, economic, commercial, and financial blockade measures, which have intensified as never before in recent months".

Thursday's comments by Rodríguez follow a warning from the country's Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy that Cuba had completely run out of diesel and fuel oil.

In an interview with state-run media, de la O Levy said there were limited amounts of gas available, but that Cuba's energy system was in a "critical" state due to the US-led blockade of oil.

Cubans have been suffering from extensive blackouts, some of them nationwide, for months.

On Wednesday, after the latest power cut affecting large swathes of eastern Cuba as well as parts of the capital, hundreds took to the streets in Havana, blocking roads with burning rubbish and shouting anti-government slogans.

It marked the biggest single night of demonstrations in the city since Cuba's energy crisis began in January, Reuters reported.

Residents of the San Miguel del Padrón neighbourhood could be heard shouting "turn on the lights!", AFP news agency reported.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged the "particularly tense" situation across the island, which he blamed on the US.

"This dramatic worsening has a single cause: the genocidal energy blockade to which the United States subjects our country, threatening irrational tariffs against any nation that supplies us with fuel," he wrote on social media.

Washington's blockade on the country ramped up in early May when the US imposed fresh sanctions on senior Cuban officials it accused of committing human rights abuses .

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez called the sanctions "illegal and abusive".