The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, said this Wednesday (28) that her government will continue sending humanitarian aid to Cuba, which includes oil, putting the leftist administration in the spotlight vis-à-vis the United States.
On Tuesday (27), Sheinbaum had confirmed that the shipment of a cargo of oil to Cuba, news previously released by international agencies, had been suspended, but did not clarify the reasons. This Wednesday, he suggested that this suspension was only a one-off and that supplies to the island will continue as humanitarian aid.
“This is one of the ways, and that’s what I said, it’s like this in the contract: Petróleos Mexicanos [Pemex, estatal mexicana] determines, according to the contract, when the shipment will be made. The other way is humanitarian aid, which also involves sending oil as part of humanitarian aid,” Sheinbaum said at a press conference, according to information from the newspaper El Universal.
“That’s why I say it is Mexico’s sovereign decision to send humanitarian aid, and with Pemex, under the terms of the contract, it is they who determine when it will be sent. I never said whether [a entrega de petróleo a Cuba] had been suspended or not; this was a later interpretation based on a newspaper article”, stated the left-wing president.
“Humanitarian aid to Cuba, as well as to other countries, continues because it is humanitarian aid, and Mexico has always been in solidarity with everyone, and these are sovereign decisions,” he added.
Last week, the Reuters agency said that Mexico was reviewing oil exports to Cuba due to fear of retaliation from the United States.
Even before the capture of the then Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro by American forces on the 3rd, Mexico had already surpassed Venezuela as the main exporter of oil to Cuba.
American President Donald Trump stated after Maduro’s capture that there would no longer be any shipment of Venezuelan oil to Cuba and told the Castro regime to make an agreement with the USA “before it is too late”.
However, American deputies warned that Mexico has been replacing the Chavista regime in helping the Cuban dictatorship with regard to oil supplies.
