Marco Rubio says he wants to speak with Leo XIV about sending humanitarian aid to Cuba

Washington.- U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that he wants to speak with Pope Leo XIV about the possibility of Washington providing more humanitarian aid to Cuba and having it distributed by the Church in the Caribbean country, but stressed that the Cuban authorities must allow the operation.

The head of US diplomacy explained, during a press conference at the White House, that the trip to the Vatican will serve to address the possibility of expanding cooperation with the Church to channel assistance on the island. Rubio insisted that the United States has already tried to send aid but faces obstacles from Havana, and recalled that in February the White House sent 6 million dollars that would be distributed through Caritas, a network of Catholic organizations that has operations on the island.

“We are willing to give more humanitarian aid to Cuba (…) but the Cuban regime has to allow us to do so,” the Secretary of State said.

Religious freedom as a central theme of the agenda

Rubio, of Cuban descent, added that his agenda with the Holy See, which begins this Thursday, will also include broader issues, such as the defense of religious freedom globally.

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“We have shared concerns about religious freedom, we would like to talk to them about that,” indicated Marco Rubio, highlighting the coincidence of interests between Washington and the Vatican in that area. In that sense, Rubio commented on the recent trip of Leo XIV to West Africa, where he addressed the issue of freedom of worship, a matter that has greatly concerned the Trump Administration in countries like Nigeria, where at Christmas Washington bombed Islamist groups in retaliation for the massacre of Christians.

Amid the recent controversy, Rubio downplayed the tensions between President Donald Trump and Leo XIV, and denied that the president has directly accused the pontiff.

Since January, the United States imposed an oil embargo as a pressure measure against the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel, and last week Trump threatened to take control of Cuba immediately after the end of the war in Iran.

Controversy over a photo of Marco Rubio next to the map of Cuba

Rubio also downplayed the fact that he was photographed with the leader of the U.S. Southern Command in front of a map of Cuba and the apparent possibility that Washington is preparing an imminent military offensive against the island.

“Cuba is within the Southern Command. You know, it’s the closest part,” Rubio said in an unusual press conference at the White House in which he explained that the decision to be photographed with the map of Cuba during his visit to the headquarters of the aforementioned command was simply because there was one in the room where the snapshot was taken.

The Southern Command is one of the ten unified combatant commands and its area of influence includes all Latin American countries, with the exception of Mexico. The Secretary of State visited the main facilities of this command today, located in Miami, Rubio’s hometown. “On my second visit there, our heads of mission from across the Western Hemisphere were present. I was addressing them and, at that moment, I met the general who had just taken command of the Southern Command,” he explained. “Coincidentally, there was a map of Cuba, and I commented ‘it would be a good idea for us to take a photo in front of that map, since it’s the closest thing to the United States that there is within the Southern Command’,” added the head of American diplomacy. Marco Rubio himself, grandson of Cubans, has been one of the main proponents of Washington taking a hard line on the Miguel Díaz-Canel government.