The president of MexicoClaudia Sheinbaum, stated this Wednesday that humanitarian aid to Cuba “continues” because it is a “sovereign decision” of the country and a sign of its “solidarity”, amid the pressure exerted from Washington and criticism from several US congressmen to stop shipments of Mexican oil to the Caribbean island.
“Humanitarian aid to Cuba, like to other countries, continues because it is humanitarian aid and Mexico has always been in solidarity with the entire world. These are sovereign decisions,” the president stressed in her daily press conference from Mexico City.
Within this humanitarian aid, he added that Mexico “will determine” if it includes the shipment of crude oil based on the requests of the Cuban authorities.
The Mexican leader thus responded to new questions about the alleged stoppage in the shipment of oil from Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to the Caribbean island, information that was reported by Bloomberg and that Sheinbaum neither confirmed nor denied.
Several Republican legislators from Florida, such as Carlos Giménez and María Elvira Salazar, warned this Tuesday of consequences for the Mexican Government, including in the review of the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC), if it does not stop the shipment of oil to Cuba, as already ordered by the US President, Donald Trump, in Venezuela.
In this sense, Sheinbaum insisted that it is the state company that determines “according to the contract” signed when shipments are made, although he pointed out that humanitarian aid is “another way” for the supply of crude oil from Mexico to Cuba.
The president guaranteed the sending of this humanitarian aid, although she did not clarify whether the shipment of oil will be included in the following deliveries.
However, he defended this aid as a “sovereign decision” of the country and recalled that “recently” the United States sent supplies to the island, as well as other countries.
Mexico has become the main supplier of oil and derivatives to Cuba, raising the geopolitical cost in its relationship with the United States, which promoted supply restrictions to the island from Venezuela after the capture of President Nicolás Maduro in a military intervention in Caracas at the beginning of January.
At the beginning of January, the oil tanker Ocean Mariner arrived in Havana Bay, loaded with some 86,000 barrels of fuel from Mexico, as confirmed to EFE the Energy Institute at the University of Texas.
