Havana, Oct 30 (Prensa Latina) A plane from the Venezuelan airline Conviasa arrived today at the Antonio Maceo airport in Santiago de Cuba with 26 tons of humanitarian aid sent by the government of Caracas to support the victims of Hurricane Melissa.
The aircraft, which departed from Maiquetía airport in Venezuela, transported medical supplies, non-perishable food, and materials for the reconstruction of homes and institutions affected by the cyclone that hit the southeast of the island.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil led the handover and stressed that the assistance was a commitment of brotherhood, not an act of charity, according to the Cuban News Agency.
“Twenty-five years ago, Cuba extended its hand to Venezuela in a difficult time; today it is our turn to accompany the Cuban people in this adversity,” he declared.
His speech coincided with the anniversary of the Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement between Cuba and Venezuela, signed on October 30, 2000 by Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez, a founding milestone of the South American alliance.
Gil announced that a similar shipment will depart for Jamaica, also affected by Melissa, in the coming hours, and that a ship with an additional three thousand tons of aid for Cuba will set sail in the coming days.
In Santiago de Cuba, the coordinator of Programs and Objectives of the Santiago government, Edelva Marín, reported that a thousand food modules are already being distributed, with rice, flour, sugar, legumes, sardines, milk, oil and other products, destined for large mothers in the most impacted areas.
Niurka Bell Calzado, a member of the Provincial Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba, highlighted the symbolic coincidence between the arrival of the aid and the recent UN approval of the resolution against the US blockade.
“It was a powerful hurricane, but also a day of victory. That Venezuela was the first to arrive reaffirms that solidarity is not just a slogan, but a living practice,” he stated.
The Bolivarian foreign minister highlighted the direct monitoring by President Nicolás Maduro and the constant coordination with President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, whom he congratulated on the diplomatic victory at the United Nations.
“The revolution doesn’t threaten, it accompanies. In every ton sent goes the heart of a people who know what it is to resist and win,” Yván Gil concluded.
mem/mks
