Mexico has cancelled a shipment of oil to Cuba, the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, appeared to confirm on Tuesday, but she insisted the decision was “sovereign” and not the response to pressure from the US.
Fuel shortages are causing increasingly severe blackouts in Cuba, and Mexico has been the island’s biggest oil supplier since the US blocked shipments from Venezuela last month.
On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Pemex, Mexico’s state oil company, had “backtracked” on plans to send a much-needed delivery to Cuba this month.
Asked whether she denied the report in her daily press conference, Sheinbaum said: “It is a sovereign decision and it is made in the moment when necessary.”
The cancelled shipment comes amid reports that the Mexican government had been privately reviewing whether to keep sending oil to Cuba amid fear of reprisals from the US.
After the US captured and renditioned Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela at the start of the year, it appeared to turn its attention to Cuba, Venezuela’s longstanding ally, with Donald Trump writing in a 11 January Truth Social post: “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!”
Sheinbaum sidestepped a question about whether the cancelled shipment is a one-off or could represent a more lasting suspension of oil shipments, while restating Mexico’s longstanding stance against the US blockade on Cuba.
“Cuba has been under a blockade for too many years now. And this blockade has caused supply problems on the island,” said Sheinbaum. “Mexico has always shown solidarity and Mexico will continue to show solidarity.”
The issue of oil shipments to Cuba is a fraught one for Sheinbaum, who is striving to show the Trump administration that Mexico is a partner on trade and security without alienating the left wing of her party, Morena.
The Trump administration has recently repeated its threats of unilateral military strikes on drug trafficking cartels in Mexico, just as the two countries begin to renegotiate the trillion-dollar USMCA North American free trade agreement.
“Whenever Sheinbaum gives mealy-mouthed answers, it’s not for lack of preparation,” said Alexander González Ormerod, a political analyst. “It’s because it’s probably an answer made by committee on the best way to avoid upsetting all the different constituencies within the Morena and the US-Mexico coalition.”
“When the answer’s easy, she’s decisive,” he added. “When it’s not, she’s evasive.”
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