The Mexican president denied that Mexico is sending more oil to Cuba than it has sent “historically.”
MIAMI, United States. – Cuban-American Congressman Carlos Giménez (R-Florida) publicly accused Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum of “lying” about the supply of crude oil to Cuba and demanded that these shipments stop “immediately,” after learning the reports which place Mexico as the main supplier of oil to the Island in 2025, even above Venezuelan supply.
In a post on XGiménez wrote: “In the United States Congress, we know that the president of Mexico, Sheinbaum, lies blatantly. She claims to be a friend of the USA and then betrays us by providing free oil to the dictatorship in Cuba. This must stop immediately. The consequences will be severe.”
Just this Wednesday, in his usual morning conference, Sheinbaum denied that Mexico is sending more oil to Cuba than it has sent “historically.”
Shortly before, the Financial Times had reported – with data from the Kpler firm – that Mexico exported an average of 12,284 barrels of oil per day to Cuba in 2025, equivalent to about 44% of the island’s total crude oil imports, and that Venezuela was behind with 9,528 barrels per day.
In May 2025, Petróleo Mexicanos (PEMEX) increased its crude oil shipments to Cuba in 2024 and its subsidiary Gasolinas de Bienestar exported 20,100 barrels per day of crude oil and 2,700 barrels per day of petroleum products that year, for an amount equivalent to 600 million dollars, according to the company’s annual report before the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
At that time, “several sources” they told the Reuters agency that the shipments were made as donations, but that PEMEX recorded them as sales in its reports.
The Mexican Government has not presented a detailed and comparable historical series that would allow us to accurately determine whether current volumes do not exceed those of previous administrations. Sheinbaum assured this Wednesday that he requested the information from PEMEX, but that they had not sent it to him at that time, and reiterated that “there is no particular shipment” to Cuba.
In mid-December, Sheinbaum reaffirmed that his government would maintain the relationship and the historical policy of support for Havana, after it was suggested in Washington that Mexico should “reconsider” its support for the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes during a hearing in the United States House of Representatives.
In your Thursday morning conference December 18, the Mexican president defended that her country’s position with respect to Cuba was a “sovereign decision” and maintained that it should not contaminate the bilateral relationship with the United States.
“That relationship has always been a difference between the Government of the United States and the Government of Mexico. It does not have to influence the Mexico-United States relationship and our position is sovereign, it is a sovereign decision and it has a lot to do with the humanism that we represent,” said Sheinbaum.
Sheinbaum framed his position as historical continuity of the Mexican State, pointing out that the relationship with the Island has been sustained through different governments and recalled that Mexico maintained a unique position in the inter-American sphere in the 1960s. In that sense, he affirmed that the policy towards Cuba will remain “as it has maintained since [el presidente Adolfo] López Mateos” and mentioned that the issue has been present in the Mexico-United States relationship since 1959.
A day earlier, the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the United States House of Representatives had carried out held a hearing titled “Relations of Mexico with the region”in which Cuban-American Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar (R-Florida) He reproached the Mexican foreign policy of “non-intervention” and used Cuba as an example of what he described as a contradiction between discourse and practice.
Salazar stated that “in the last four months” Mexico had sent to Cuba, free of charge, some 55 oil vessels/tankers that would have a value of “more than 3,000 million dollars.” In addition, he criticized the agreements for hiring Cuban doctors in Mexico, for which the Government of the Aztec country would be paying “more than 100 million dollars” to the Cuban Government and not directly to the doctors.
