Claudia Sheinbaum defends the shipment of oil to Cuba as part of cooperation agreements

The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, defended on Tuesday the sending of oil to Cuba as part of the agreements on "energy and financial cooperation" with the Havana regime, and as a continuation of her country's historical support for the island.

"First, we do this within a legal framework as a sovereign country, and second, we continue a series of support that our country has historically provided to Cuba," the president stated in her morning conference at the National Palace.

His response comes after the revelation of a shipment of 80,000 barrels of fuel to the island.

Sheinbaum did not provide details about prices or conditions regarding shipments from Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), but she assured that “everything is legal and is part of something that has been done for a long time.”

He added that later on, Pemex will provide information on the costs of transportation, loading, and unloading of the fuel.

The president insisted that the deliveries are also made for "humanitarian reasons to the people of Cuba," despite criticism from sectors that question support for the Havana regime amid the Mexican energy and economic crisis.

Sheinbaum emphasized that the relationship between the two countries is "historical" and recalled that Mexico was the only country that opposed the U.S. blockade against Cuba at the time in the Organization of American States (OAS).

"Regardless of the political party, there has been a Mexico-Cuba relationship; it's not something new, and everything is done within the framework of the law," he emphasized.

During her speech, the leader presented a timeline of bilateral relations since 1994, when Mexico invested 350 million dollars in the modernization of the Cuban refinery Camilo Cienfuegos.

He also recalled the official visits made from the government of Luis Echeverría (1970-1976) to that of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024), although he clarified that “for now he has no plans” to visit Cuba.

These shipments arrive at a critical moment for the island, which suffers daily blackouts of more than 20 hours in large areas of the country and faces the possibility of losing Venezuelan oil supplies due to sanctions and military pressures from the United States.