Emir Olivares Alonso
La Jornada Newspaper
Tuesday, October 29, 2024, p. 11
Cuba is negotiating with several governments, including Mexico, the type of support it can receive in the face of the energy emergency that the island is suffering and avoid a new massive blackout, reported the ambassador of that nation in our country, Marcos Rodríguez Costa.
The diplomat thanked the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum for offering help in the face of the crisis, which consisted of a total disconnection of the electricity service on Friday, October 21, and continued that weekend.
At a press conference, Rodríguez stated that he has no details about the version that the ship Vilma – flying the Cuban flag – had set sail for the island from the port of Pajaritos, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, with 400 thousand barrels of oil.
I don’t have details (of the ship). It is precisely the Cuban government that is in negotiations with Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and with a large group of nations to achieve this aid.
he pointed out.
The Reuters agency reported the movement and loading of the Vilma and disclosed that the ship’s arrival to the island was scheduled for the end of this week, according to the British financial data provider London Stock Exchange Group.
According to the source, the Vilma has exclusively covered the Mexico-Cuba route this year.
The Mexican government has been supplying fuel to Cuba since last year, as a complement to the shipment from Venezuela, the island’s main supplier of hydrocarbons.
A previous shipment of Mexican crude went in mid-September to the port that serves the Cuban Cienfuegos refinery, Reuters added.
Debate at the United Nations
The diplomat Rodríguez stressed that on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) will discuss for the thirty-second time a Cuban proposal to condemn the economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed by the United States on the Central American nation. more than six decades ago.
He maintained that this measure causes losses to his country’s economy of 13 million dollars a day.
Since 1991, when Cuba began to promote the condemnation resolution, almost all UN member states have spoken out in favor of lifting that resolution. cruel, genocidal and harmful policy for our people, which violates human rights
despite which, Washington evades responding to the calls, said the ambassador.
Rodríguez stressed that the blockade has always been the main obstacle
for development. The central objective of the White House, he asserted, is to force a change in the political system on the island. He assured that this month’s energy emergency is largely due to unilateral US measures, since Washington’s coercion complicates the purchase of fuel, making transactions and even payments to suppliers through banking systems, as well as the acquisition of parts. necessary for the electricity generation infrastructure in its territory, he added.
From January to September, Mexico has supplied Cuba with about 20 thousand barrels per day (bpd) of Olmeca oil, which arrived mainly in Cienfuegos, the British news agency indicated.
He added that, in 2023, Mexico exported about 16 thousand bpd and refined products to the island.
The Mexican cargoes, aboard the same vessels that transport Venezuelan crude oil and fuels to Cuba, are supplied by a subsidiary of Petróleos Mexicanos, the company declared this year to the United States Securities Commission (SEC). .
According to that report, sales are made through contracts denominated in pesos and are valued at market prices.
With information from Reuters
