MEXICO CITY -- (AP) -- More than 30 tons of rice, beans and powdered milk destined for Cuban hurricane victims remained in Havana warehouses Friday waiting for a government ruling on its distribution.
The Roman Catholic relief agencies that sent the food want it distributed in the area of Cienfuegos on Cuba's south coast, where Hurricane Lili did some of its heaviest damage two weeks ago.
Lili destroyed nearly 5,500 homes and damaged 79,000. More than 1.6 million acres of sugar cane plantations were devastated, along with 53,000 acres of banana plantations and 90,000 acres of other crops.
The Cuban government wants the food for general aid for the poor.
``As of today we have no answer, and our proposal was very concrete,'' said Rolando Suarez of the relief agency Caritas in a telephone interview from Havana.
``They are considering it,'' he said.
Meanwhile, more aid has apparently arrived in Havana.
``We understand other aid has arrived, from Canada and Spain -- or rather, the European Union -- but we don't know if it is being distributed yet,'' Suarez said.
Because of a holiday in Cuba there was nobody at the Canadian or Spanish embassies in Havana on Friday to confirm the status of the shipments.
When the Catholic agencies' relief plane arrived Saturday, the Cuban government objected to what it considered propaganda slogans, including the word ``exile'' and the phrase ``For Cuba, love conquers all,'' written on the boxes. Relief officials said this would not be a problem because all the goods had to be repackaged for distribution in smaller amounts. But Cuban officials then insisted on testing the foods, including 105 different types or brands of milk in the shipment.
Copyright © 1996 The Miami Herald