Sheinbaum was questioned about Mexico’s role as Cuba’s main oil supplier.
MIAMI, United States. – Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum assured this Wednesday that her country is not sending to Cuba “more oil than has been sent historically” and that there is “no particular shipment” that explains the rebound reported by international media in the supply to the Island.
In his press conference this Wednesdaythe president said that she asked Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) for the data to provide a “historical trend” of shipments and maintained that the current flow is part of contracts and humanitarian aid.
Sheinbaum responded to a question in which a journalist mentioned a note from Financial Timeswhich indicates that Mexico became Cuba’s main oil supplier. In response to this statement, the president stated: “Yesterday [martes 6 de enero] I asked PEMEX – they did not send me the information – but they are not sending more oil than they have historically sent. There is no particular shipment.”
The president argued that Mexico has sent oil to Cuba “for many years” for different reasons, including contracts and “humanitarian aid.” He also recalled that “even at the time of[l presidente Enrique] Peña Nieto, for example, “a debt owed to Cuba was forgiven,” and presented the dispatches as part of a “historical” pattern of support.
Sheinbaum admitted, however, that “with the current situation in Venezuela” Mexico begins to occupy a more visible place as a supplier for the Island.
This Tuesday, the publication of the Financial Timeswhich ensures that Mexico will become Cuba’s largest oil supplier in 2025. According to data from the monitoring firm Kpler cited by that medium, the Aztec country exported to the Island an average of 12,284 barrels of crude oil per day last year, equivalent to 44% of the Island’s total crude oil imports.
The same source indicates that Venezuela, historically the main supplier to Havana, came in second place with 9,528 barrels per day (34% of the total). Although this volume was similar to that of 2024, it was 63% below the level of 2023.
The rebound in the Mexican flow coincided with a sharp deterioration in Venezuelan supply to the Island, in a context in which the Trump Administration toughened its policy towards Caracas, even with maritime interdiction actions.
PEMEX reported in a statement filed in December with a US stock exchange that its Gasolina Bienestar unit sent 17,200 barrels per day of crude oil and 2,000 barrels per day of petroleum products to Cuba during the first nine months of 2025, for a value of $400 million.
Sheinbaum publicly defended the legality of those shipments: “First, we are doing this within a legal framework as a sovereign country, and second, we are continuing a series of support measures that our country has historically provided to Cuba.”
In testimony before a House subcommittee on December 17, 2025, Katherine Dueholm, principal deputy assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the State Department, stated that his agency continued to pressure Mexico to play “a constructive regional role aligned with US foreign policy objectives.” and that, “unfortunately,” the current Mexican administration “has frequently acted in ways that run counter to (…) US objectives, including its support for the brutal, corrupt and economically dysfunctional Cuban regime.” Dueholm added: “We continue to urge Mexico to reconsider these positions.”
Cuban-American congressmen Carlos Giménez, Mario Díaz-Balart and María Elvira Salazar also warned of “serious consequences” for Mexico if Sheinbaum continued “undermining US policy by sending oil to the murderous dictatorship in Cuba.”
