Cuba accepts US offer of storm relief

October 28, 2005|Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Cuba has unexpectedly agreed to a quiet US offer of emergency aid following Hurricane Wilma, and three Americans will travel to Cuba to assess needs there, the State Department said yesterday.

Washington has routinely offered humanitarian relief for hurricanes and other disasters in Cuba, and Cuba's president, Fidel Castro, has routinely turned the offers down. After Hurricane Dennis pummeled the island in July, Castro expressed gratitude for Washington's offer of $50,000 in aid but rejected it.

''This was the first time they have accepted an offer of assistance," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, at least based on the ''collective memory" of diplomats at the department.

The US-Cuban cooperation was not expected to produce any easing in the longstanding hostility between the two countries.

Washington, which maintains a trade embargo against Cuba, sent a diplomatic note to Cuban officials on Tuesday, a day after the storm pounded the island nation, offering to send emergency supplies. Cuba accepted the offer Wednesday, McCormack said.

The State Department did not specify what supplies might be sent, but humanitarian assistance generally covers food, medical supplies, or emergency housing.

A team from the US Agency for International Development is making travel arrangements now, McCormack said. Additional aid offers would be based on what that team found, and all aid would go to Cuba indirectly, through aid groups, McCormack said.