The secretary of State from the United States, Marco Rubioexcluded this Wednesday Cuba from the list of countries to which Washington will send aid to soften the impact of the Hurricane Melissa.
“The United States is in close contact with the governments of Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, which are facing the devastating effects of Hurricane Melissa”he wrote in a message on X.
“We have rescue and response teams heading to affected areas along with vital life-saving supplies. Our prayers are with the people of the Caribbean”he added.
The head of US diplomacy, of Cuban origin, did not include Cuba within the group of countries, although the island has also been impacted by the cyclone.
1 / 71 | Catastrophic: this was the passage of Hurricane Melissa through the Caribbean. While still a tropical storm, Melissa moved slowly through the central Caribbean this past weekend. – Ricardo Hernandez
Melissa is the most devastating hurricane of the season in the Atlantic: Haiti has reported at least twenty deaths, half of them children, and ten missing, and in Jamaica 500,000 people have been left without power.
Cuba woke up this Wednesday with nearly 3.5 million people without power, and considerable damage from floods and landslides while Hurricane Melissa, which has currently weakened to category 3 (of 5) on the Saffir-Simpson scale, heads through the east of the island towards the Bahamas.
The hurricane made landfall in the eastern end of Cuba and caused sustained winds of 120 miles per hour that have weakened over the hours. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, maintains a strong antagonistic stance against the Cuban Government, and defends sanctions, pressures and embargoes against it.
