‘The Washington Post’ cites several sources and notes that the lack of fuel is affecting the distribution of aid sent by Washington through the Church.
14ymedio, Madrid, March 27, 2026 – The Cuban Government is trying to get the Vatican to act as a mediator so that Washington eases the fuel blockade, which, among other things, is keeping tons of U.S. humanitarian aid that the Catholic Church itself distributes stalled in ports. A dozen sources have confirmed to The Washington Post both the diplomatic situation and the complexities of distribution, as well as the complications for this option to succeed.
It is not surprising that Havana seeks to involve the Holy See, whose influence has been crucial in various processes ranging from the release of prisoners from the Black Spring to the more than 500 prisoner releases that facilitated Cuba’s provisional removal from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism in January 2025; not to mention the thaw carried out by Raúl Castro and Barack Obama in 2014. In all of these, the Vatican was behind the scenes.
This, along with the fact that Pope Leo XIV is American, motivates Havana to seek his influence, although nothing suggests the result will be productive, since the Trump Administration has ignored two of the pontiff’s main demands in his year on the throne of Saint Peter: the end of the wars in Gaza and Iran and different treatment for migrants.
“Cubans have always believed that the Vatican possesses a kind of magical power and that its support will make Cuba receive more,” John S. Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, told the Post.
But a source familiar with the talks told the newspaper that the White House is reluctant. “The Administration is not going to allow the Vatican to dictate its policy toward Cuba. They can talk, but the answer is: ‘You’re right, there are problems, but we didn’t cause them.’” In his opinion, the Cuban Government already has it in its hands to ease the crisis if it makes the changes Washington demands. “So we’re not too enthusiastic about a quid pro quo, because we really don’t need to do anything for them to do something, since they are collapsing on their own and therefore we will get what we want.”
“So we’re not too enthusiastic about a quid pro quo, because we really don’t need to do anything for them to do something, since they are collapsing on their own and therefore we will get what we want”
The words of this source seem firm, but the Church has apparently tried to explain to the U.S. Administration that the very aid they send is useless in Cuban ports. “On the one hand, they want to deliver humanitarian aid to those in need through the Catholic Church, since it is present throughout the Island,” said a person familiar with coordinating the delivery of nine million dollars’ worth of products that Marco Rubio announced after Hurricane Melissa in October. “But, at the same time, that aid cannot arrive due to the oil blockade. The sanctions need to be lifted, because the situation has been like this for a couple of months,” he said.
Thomas Wenski, archbishop of Miami, told the Post that the mere fact that the Cuban regime accepted those packages, which very visibly bear the U.S. flag, is no small thing. Most of the supply containers were arriving at the port of Mariel, but the Church, says the archbishop, does not have trucks with fuel to transport them across the Island, and although they painstakingly coordinated a shipment by sea to Santiago, some cooperation from the Government was necessary. Wenski showed the Post photographs of volunteers in Guantánamo distributing the aid on tricycles and wheelbarrows. Another aid worker said that animals had to be used for transport. “It’s like a Mad Max movie,” Wenski added.
Another of the sources who spoke with the Post is Rolando Montes de Oca, a priest in three parishes near Havana, who distributed U.S. food aid among dozens of elderly people and people with disabilities who depend on his area. His volunteers had to cook with charcoal due to power outages, he said. He saves the little gasoline he has to collect and deliver aid, but he has calculated that it will barely last him until Easter Sunday. To celebrate Mass, he travels up to 18 kilometers by bicycle.
All of this was discussed, says the Post, at a meeting that Mike Hammer, head of mission of the U.S. in Havana, held on February 20 with Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, number two at the Vatican Secretariat of State. The diplomat also attended, along with Brian Burch, U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, a meeting with other Latin American colleagues to discuss “how to collaborate with the Church to support the Cuban people’s desire for economic opportunities and freedom.”
Hammer confirmed that the U.S. is in dialogue with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, “El Cangrejo,” and “another person,” according to a source close to the meeting
At that meeting, the newspaper maintains, Hammer confirmed that the U.S. is in dialogue with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, “El Cangrejo,” [The Crab] and “another person,” according to a source close to the meeting. But that while the agreement was taking shape, the U.S. wanted to send humanitarian aid by bypassing the regime. The Church was clear: the oil blockade is harming the distribution of any aid.
Only a few days later, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez traveled to Rome to speak with the powerful Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State. Although little has emerged from that meeting, one source told the Post that the minister requested the Pope’s intercession, and on March 12, Havana announced the release of 51 prisoners through mediation by the Holy See.
The Church is not comfortable either. Reluctant to become politically involved, it does not want, according to the report, to see a repeat of what happened in Venezuela with Maduro and prefers a “less traumatic” solution and for the departure of Miguel Díaz-Canel to be agreed upon if it is to occur. Although in their latest statement the bishops asked the regime to make the “political changes that Cuba needs,” they also said that “governments should be able to resolve their disagreements and conflicts through dialogue and diplomacy, not coercion.”
The Vatican has declined to comment to the Post, beyond condemning, since the time of John Paul II, the embargo. But when asked this month about Cuba, Parolin told the press: “We did what we had to do for Cuba. We met with the Foreign Minister and took the necessary steps, always with a view to a solution based on dialogue for the existing problems.” Nothing more.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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