Cuban President Fidel Castro has denied that his government had accepted U.S. aid following the devastation of Hurricane Wilma. Castro appeared on national television and accused the U.S. and Europe of failing to provide enough help to Guatemala as it recovered from devastating mudslides and Hurricane Stan earlier this month. The U.S. State Department had announced this week that Cuba had accepted U.S. disaster aid. But in his address on Thursday, Castro said that it wasn"t true and he chastised the offer of $50,000:


"Dollars save no one. They arrive at a bank. Doctors carrying their backpacks, who arrive quickly and go in any way they can at any time, they save lives. Fifty thousand. They"re sending 50 thousand. I want to laugh. It"s shameful. They walk around talking about human rights, defending mercenaries of the empire and they don"t send them (doctors) for one simple reason. Some would say it"s because they"re egotistical, because they"re arrogant, because they don"t feel any pain for what"s going on in the third world. They"re all of those things, but they don"t send doctors because they don"t have doctors."
During Hurricane Katrina, Castro offered to send 1,500 doctors equipped with disaster response backpacks but the US rejected the offer.