The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, confirmed this Tuesday that her government will continue to send humanitarian aid to Cuba, although it will not resume the oil shipments that have been suspended since January, according to statements made during her morning press conference.
"Support of all kinds continues to be sent, and we will keep sending it. I don’t know if it was yesterday or the day before that another support ship arrived for the Cuban people, and we will continue to provide support to the Cuban people," the president stated in response to a journalist's question about whether Mexico could increase its support for the island.
The statements come just days after the ship Asian Katra docked in the port of Havana last Sunday with 1,700 tons of food and supplies sent by Mexico and Belize, a shipment for which the Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel publicly expressed gratitude to both governments.
Regarding the possibility of resuming oil shipments, Sheinbaum implicitly ruled out that option by noting that Cuba has other avenues: "They have some other mechanisms for purchasing fuel, and we continue to support them in every way we can. It is a matter of solidarity; the people of Mexico have always done this, and we will continue to do so because it is a people in need."
Pemex suspended its oil exports to Cuba on January 27 following the signing of Executive Order 14380 by Donald Trump, which imposed secondary sanctions on countries that supplied crude oil to the island.
In May, Sheinbaum had already justified the عدم استئناف of those shipments by arguing that Cuba was receiving oil from Russia, referring to the cargo from the Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin that arrived in Matanzas on March 31 with 100,000 metric tons of crude donated by Moscow.
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov admitted in April that this aid "will probably last a couple of months," and by June that supply was dwindling with no new Russian shipments confirmed.
Since February 2026, Mexico has accumulated over 4,800 tons of humanitarian aid sent to Cuba, including food, medicine, hygiene products, and solar panels, according to data from various documented shipments.
Mexican aid has not been without controversy: in March, a report from TV Azteca revealed that donated products from Mexico were being sold in state-run Cuban stores for foreign currency, at prices of up to 43 dollars per 30 kg bundle of beans, accusations that the Cuban government denied.
The Catholic Church and Caritas have also reported that the shortage of fuel is preventing aid from reaching the interior of the country, which casts doubt on the actual extent of the deliveries to the most vulnerable populations.
In 2025, under the administration of Sheinbaum, Mexico covered about 17% of the fuel consumed by Cuba, with hydrocarbon exports valued at 560 million dollars annually and an average of 17,200 barrels per day, the highest level in 25 years, a figure that contrasts with Mexico's shift towards non-petroleum aid that has been maintained since January.
Filed under: