Miguel Díaz-Canel dedicated an emotional passage of praise to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in an exclusive interview granted to the newspaper La Jornada, published this Thursday, in which he stated that she has demonstrated a steadfastness of convictions, a firmness of principles, courage, and gallantry.
The official account of the Presidency of Cuba on X shared a video today featuring those statements, in which the Cuban leader affirmed that Mexicans have no idea how many Cuban women and men would like to personally thank their President for everything she has done for Cuba during these times.
Díaz-Canel concluded the passage with a phrase that the Presidency of Cuba chose as the central message: "Thank you Mexico, a thousand times thank you for always standing by Cuba in the most difficult moments of our nation."
The ruler described the relationship between the two countries with the title of a play: "Love is Repaid with Love", and extended praise to the Mexican people and government as a whole.
The praise comes at a time of extreme seriousness for the island.
Díaz-Canel acknowledged in the same interview that Cuba has gone almost four months without receiving fuel from abroad, following the cessation of Venezuelan supplies that were interrupted after Nicolás Maduro was captured by the United States on January 3.
"There are places where we have experienced power outages lasting 30 and more than 40 hours. Today, people find themselves limited in how they can move and transport themselves due to the lack of fuel," admitted the leader, although he attributed the responsibility to the U.S. embargo and what he called "media intoxication," without reflecting critically on his management.
Mexico, the savior?
On January 30, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring Cuba an unusual and extraordinary threat to national security and imposed tariffs on countries that sell oil to it, further hindering the island's access to fuel.
In this context, Mexico has become the main external support for the regime. Sheinbaum has sent at least five ships with more than two thousand tons of food, medicine, and solar panels from the ports of Veracruz and Progreso.
However, the aid has sparked mixed reactions among the Cubans themselves. In Cienfuegos, the distribution led to mockery: "That's just to say they gave something", commented locals who find the shipments inadequate given the scale of the crisis.
The interview in La Jornada —a media outlet aligned with the regime— is part of a communication strategy by the Cuban government to project an image of resilience to leftist audiences in Latin America and Europe, at a time when internal pressure is at its peak: in March, street protests erupted in multiple cities, featuring pot-banging and slogans against the dictatorship, and Cubalex reported at least 14 arrests since March 6.
Mexican Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente reaffirmed at the CELAC Summit in Bogotá that Mexico "will continue to provide all the assistance possible to the Cuban people," while Sheinbaum seeks mechanisms to send fuel without exposing itself to reprisals from Washington.
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