Washington offers aid to help Cuba recover from Gustav damage

LA PALMA, Cuba - The United States has offered Cuba $100,000 in emergency aid for the victims of Hurricane Gustav and is willing to send far more if a US-approved disaster assessment team is allowed to tour the hardest-hit areas.

All aid would be provided through international relief organizations, with none going directly to the communist government, said Gregory Adams, a spokesman for the US Interests Section in the Cuban capital.

"We're awaiting a response from the Cuban government, whether they say yea or nay," Adams said. "It's not a shift in US policy. It's a response to a humanitarian emergency."

The Cuban government has not commented on the offer from its longtime foe.

Gustav damaged 100,000 homes, so the initial US offer works out to only about $1 per home in need of repair.

But Cuba's government is facing sky-high expectations from those who lost everything in the storm. Yanet Perez, for one, is convinced that the government will build her a new home.

"I have faith. Other times when catastrophes have happened, they have mobilized and rebuilt," said the 28-year-old, who was slumped in a rocking chair with her 1-year-old daughter in front of the skeletal remains of her home in La Palma. "Those with children are given priority."

Such sentiment sounds much like the propaganda that clogs state-controlled radio and television, but also reflects the genuine expectations of people who have always been promised that the communist system will provide.

Living up to those expectations is an important test for Raul Castro, who succeeded his brother Fidel as president six months ago.

While Gustav killed at least 122 people, including 26 in the United States, Cuba reported no deaths, thanks to mandatory evacuations. Still, the Category 4 hurricane will worsen an already severe, island-wide housing shortage.

Thousands who moved into temporary housing after Hurricane Michelle in 2001 still live in the decrepit apartments without proper water and sewer services, and many are skeptical about quick recovery from Gustav as well.

Fidel Castro wrote this week that repairs could cost billions, on an island where the average state salary is only about $20 per month.

Democrat Barack Obama expressed sympathy for Gustav's victims in Cuba and urged President Bush "to immediately suspend restrictions on family remittances, visits, and humanitarian care packages from Cuban Americans for a minimum of 90 days." His Republican presidential campaign rival, John McCain, has called for easing restrictions only when the United States is "confident that the transition to a free and open democracy is being made."

The United States offered aid after Hurricane Michelle too, and Cuba turned it down. But Cuba took advantage of a 2000 US law allowing direct-payment sale of US food and agricultural products to the island. Today, America is Cuba's top supplier of food.