U.S. says held talks with Cuba on $100 million offer

The United States and Cuba held talks this week connected a U.S. connection of $100 cardinal successful assistance, which Washington has dangled arsenic an inducement for reforms, a U.S. authoritative said connected Tuesday (May 19, 2026).

Mike Hammer, the acting U.S. ambassador to Havana, met connected Monday (May 18, 2026) with Foreign Ministry officials, the State Department authoritative said connected information of anonymity.

“We person been successful adjacent coordination with the Cubans. We had a gathering yesterday (Monday) and proceed to prosecute that connection aggressively, contrary to immoderate of the lies of the Cuban ministry of overseas affairs,” the authoritative said.

“We proceed to impulse the authorities to judge the connection and effort to forestall interference with the transportation of assistance,” helium said.

The assistance would beryllium distributed done Catholic Relief Services and Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical Protestant charity, and not handed implicit straight to the Cuban government, helium said.

“The Cuban authorities is sitting connected respective billions of dollars,” helium said. “We would impulse them to usage that wealth to really assistance the Cuban radical put successful their infrastructure alternatively of hoarding it.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a sworn foe of Havana’s communist government, has publically offered the $100 cardinal but has demanded that Cuba instrumentality steps to unfastened up.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez past week said that Havana was unfastened to reviewing the assistance proposal, aft earlier saying Rubio was lying astir the offer.

Cuba has been successful the throes of a large economical situation with persistent vigor blackouts aft the United States overthrew Venezuela’s leftist person Nicolas Maduro and ended the travel of escaped lipid from Caracas successful speech for Cuban aesculapian expertise and different services.

With the concern progressively dire, Cuba — for decades targeted successful U.S. espionage — past week took the bonzer measurement of welcoming CIA Director John Ratcliffe for talks.