Mexico Rejects Claims of ‘Political Suspension’ of Oil Shipments to Cuba

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum says the decision on whether her country sends oil to Cuba remains a matter of national sovereignty. Her remarks come in response to international media reports claiming shipments had been suspended due to pressure from the United States.

Mexico is one of the main suppliers of oil to Cuba following the U.S. attack on Venezuela on January 3, which ended with the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. Following the attack, President Donald Trump called for a full blockade on oil shipments from Venezuela to Cuba.

Mexico and Venezuela, close allies of Cuba, have helped supply oil amid the island’s fuel shortages.

TRANSCRIPT

“Yesterday, a piece of news emerged in an international newspaper that some Mexicans are picking up on today, regarding this supposed suspension of the sale or export of Mexican oil to Cuba,” said Carlos Guzmán, a journalist with Quatro Media Telecomunicaciones in Veracruz. “I don’t know if you have any information you can share with us,” he added.

“As we have said, this is a sovereign decision, and Pemex makes its own decisions,” explained Claudia Sheinbaum, President of Mexico. “Mexico’s decision to sell or provide oil to Cuba for humanitarian reasons also has to do with a sovereign decision that has been in place for many years. It is not recent,” she said.

“Cuba has been under a blockade for many years now, and that blockade has caused supply shortages on the island,” the Mexican leader continued. “Mexico has always been in solidarity, and Mexico will continue to be in solidarity.”

“Therefore, the decision of when oil is sent and how it is sent is a sovereign decision,” Sheinbaum stated. “It depends on what Pemex defines, based on contracts or, in any case, on a government decision of a humanitarian nature to use it under certain circumstances.”

“So, are you denying this claim that the shipment of oil has been suspended or is about to be suspended?” Guzmán asked.

“It is a sovereign decision,” the president concluded, “and it is taken at the moment it is deemed necessary.”