The President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced this Tuesday a new shipment of humanitarian aid destined for Cuba, and confirmed that two ships from the Secretaría de Marina will depart in the coming weeks towards Venezuela, as she conveyed during the morning conference of the President.
Sheinbaum revealed that on Tuesday she spoke directly with Lázaro Cárdenas Batel, head of the Office of the Presidency, and with the Navy Secretary to coordinate the new shipment to the island.
"The support that we can continue to provide to the people of Cuba. Just yesterday, I spoke with Lázaro, from the Lázaro Cárdenas secretariat, who helps us coordinate this work, and with the Marina secretariat to send new support to the island," the leader stated.
The president was emphatic that the policy of solidarity with Cuba does not have an expiration date: “We will continue to send support to Cuba. Through Amexida, there is a lot of collaboration with Cuba.”
He also invoked the principle of sovereignty as the framework for his stance: “Sovereignty of the peoples and the support we can continue to provide to the people of Cuba.”
The official did not provide further details about the content of the new aid to the island.
Two boats heading to Venezuela
Along with the announcement about Cuba, Sheinbaum confirmed a new shipment for Venezuela, where the earthquakes on June 24, 2026, left a serious humanitarian emergency.
"Two ships are going; in the coming weeks, two ships from the Navy will be going to Venezuela," the president specified.
In July, Mexico had already sent the ships ARM Isla Holbox and ARM Huasteco, which arrived at the port of La Guaira on July 13 with between 341 and 388 tons of aid for the areas affected by the earthquakes.
A policy sustained since February
The announcement is part of a series of shipments that Mexico started in February 2026, when the ships ARM Papaloapan and ARM Huasteco arrived in Havana with 1,193 tons of food.
Since then, Mexico has accumulated over 4,800 tons of humanitarian aid sent to Cuba, including food, medicine, hygiene products, and solar panels.
The last documented shipment before this announcement was the ship Asian Katra, which arrived in Havana on June 7 with 1,700 tons of food and supplies from Mexico and Belize.
The crisis that drives the shipments
The Mexican aid responds to an energy crisis that has been steadily worsening in Cuba.
On July 8, a historic deficit of 2,341 MW was recorded in the national power system, and on July 24 the impact once again approached that record with 2,315 MW, with outages lasting up to 24 hours daily across the country.
The situation escalated following the suspension of oil shipments from Pemex to Cuba on January 27, 2026, after the Trump administration signed Executive Order 14380, which imposed secondary sanctions on countries that supplied crude oil to the island.
Sheinbaum has ruled out resuming those shipments: "They are receiving oil from Russia, so we are turning to other humanitarian support."
Controversies over the allocation of aid
Mexico's humanitarian policy towards Cuba has not been without scrutiny.
In March, a report by TV Azteca revealed that products donated by Mexico were being sold in Cuban state stores for foreign currency, with prices reaching up to $43 for a 30 kg bag of beans; the Cuban regime denied the allegations.
The Catholic Church and Cáritas have also reported that the shortage of fuel is preventing aid from reaching the interior of the country, which limits the actual impact of shipments on the most vulnerable population.
The announcement came two days after a solidarity march with Cuba held in Mexico City on July 26, commemorating the 73rd anniversary of the assault on the Moncada Barracks, which gathered around 1,200 people.
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