A 75-foot fishing vessel named the Granma 2.0 departed Friday from the Mexican port of Progreso carrying medical supplies, food, and 73 solar panels bound for Cuba. Dozens of volunteers loaded boxes of medicine, water, rice, beans, infant formula, canned food, and bicycles onto the ship before it cleared the harbor. The voyage represents one piece of an international humanitarian effort delivering aid by air, land, and sea to an island facing severe fuel shortages and economic collapse.
Thiago Ávila, a 39-year-old from Brazil, was among 32 participants who traveled to Mexico to board the vessel. "Solidarity can't be blocked," Ávila said. "Cuba needs our solidarity." The ship is expected to arrive in Havana as early as Monday, with two additional Cuba-bound convoys scheduled to depart later Friday from the Mexican island of Isla Mujeres.
The effort includes members of the European Parliament, Christian Smalls, a U.S. labor leader, and a delegation from the Democratic Socialists of America, the left-wing group that includes New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The Cuban government has blessed the operation. One of the effort's organizers previously coordinated a similar flotilla to Gaza last year, which Israeli forces thwarted through their blockade of that territory.
A tanker carrying a cargo of diesel believed to be bound for Cuba updated its destination to Puerto Cabello, a major port in Venezuela, after the U.S. clarified that Cuba remains ineligible to receive Russian fuel.
A 75-foot fishing vessel named the Granma 2.0 departed Friday from the Mexican port of Progreso carrying medical supplies, food, and 73 solar panels bound for Cuba. Dozens of volunteers loaded boxes of medicine, water, rice, beans, infant formula, canned food, and bicycles onto the ship before it cleared the harbor. The voyage represents one piece of an international humanitarian effort delivering aid by air, land, and sea to an island facing severe fuel shortages and economic collapse under the Trump administration's oil blockade, which has been enforced since January.
Thiago Ávila, a 39-year-old from Brazil, was among 32 participants who traveled to Mexico to board the vessel. "Solidarity can't be blocked," Ávila said. "Cuba needs our solidarity." The ship is expected to arrive in Havana as early as Monday, with two additional Cuba-bound convoys scheduled to depart later Friday from the Mexican island of Isla Mujeres.
The effort includes members of the European Parliament, Christian Smalls, a U.S. labor leader, and a delegation from the Democratic Socialists of America, the left-wing group that includes New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The Cuban government has blessed the operation. One of the effort's organizers previously coordinated a similar flotilla to Gaza last year, which Israeli forces thwarted through their blockade of that territory.
A Russian tanker carrying diesel fuel initially headed toward Cuba altered course to Puerto Cabello, a major port in Venezuela, after the U.S. clarified that Cuba remains ineligible to receive Russian fuel. The policy shift reflects the Trump administration's tightening of restrictions on fuel reaching the island, extending the blockade's reach beyond direct shipments to include third-party deliveries.
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