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<h1 id="reader-title">Cuba offers Puerto Rico aid after
devastating Hurricane Maria<br>
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<div id="reader-estimated-time"><i class="time">2017-09-26 </i>|<i
class="editor domPcc">Editor: Song Lifang</i></div>
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<p>HAVANA, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Cuba on Monday offered
humanitarian and medical aid to Puerto Rico which was
hit by the devastating Hurricane Maria last week and
left in a precarious economic and social situation.</p>
<p>Cuba's deputy Foreign Minister Rogelio Sierra said
Havana has offered to send to San Juan an emergency
campaign hospital with 39 doctors to help the needed
population with health services.</p>
<p>"Cuba also offers to send four brigades of electric
workers to help our sister nation rebuild its electrical
system," said the official in his Twitter account.</p>
<p>Cuba has already sent medical and relief brigades to
Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda, which are also
affected by recent hurricanes Maria and Irma.</p>
<p>This offer must be accepted by Washington as Puerto
Rico is a commonwealth of the <a
href="http://search.news.cn/language/search.jspa?id=en&t1=0&t=1&ss=&btn=0&ct=Syria&n1=United+States&np=content">United
States</a> and Cuban aid workers and doctors must be
granted U.S. visas.</p>
<p>However, in the current state of Cuba-U.S. relations,
it seems unlikely the <a
href="http://search.news.cn/language/search.jspa?id=en&t=1&t1=0&ss=&ct=&n1=White+House&x=35&y=11">White
House</a> will approve such offer as Washington has
threatened to cut diplomatic ties with Havana over an
alleged "sonic attack" in the island against U.S.
diplomats.</p>
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump already rolled back in June
the historic opening started by his predecessor <a
href="http://search.news.cn/language/search.jspa?id=en&t=1&t1=0&ss=&ct=&n1=Barack+Obama">Barack
Obama</a>, although the new regulations haven't been
published by U.S. federal agencies or departments.</p>
<p>Cuba last offered humanitarian and medical aid to the
U.S. in 2005, when former President Fidel Castro said
the island could send doctors to New Orleans after
Hurricane Katrina devastated that city, but then U.S.
President George W. Bush rejected the offer. </p>
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