Venezuela’s Maduro Arrives to Cuba With Hurricane Aid

Hurricane Irma caused severe damage to Cuba’s agriculture, highway and electro-energetic systems.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has arrived to Cuba to show solidarity with the Caribbean island after Hurricane Irma damaged large sectors of the country.

RELATED: Hundreds of Cuban Cultural Centers Damaged by Hurricane Irma

Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, who will be delivering aid packages to victims in person, were received by Cuban President Raul Castro and Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel, as well as other ministers of state, at the Jose Marti International Airport.

"We came to Cuba to visit our sister country of Latin America and the Caribbean to help after Hurricane Irma" Maduro said after arriving to Havana.

"We are here offering our hand of solidarity to these people, who have suffered the devastating Hurricane Irma and now, with the effort of all Cubans, rises with dignity."

Hurricane Irma’s 290 kilometers-per-hour winds caused severe damage to Cuba’s agriculture, highway and electro-energetic systems, leaving vast areas without power for days.

Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama, Russia, Suriname and Vietnam are among other nations that sent resources to help those affected by the Category 5 hurricane. It left 10 dead and caused extensive damage to infrastructure and housing in the Caribbean region as a whole.

Cuba itself has dispatched 771 physicians to several Caribbean islands that were also affected by the storm's destruction.

Described by meteorologists as one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the Caribbean in a century, Hurricane Irma has caused at least 28 casualties and left a path of widespread destruction on several northeastern Caribbean Islands, especially Barbuda.