listen to this article5 minutes
information
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has announced that her country will send humanitarian aid to Cuba as the country continues to negotiate with US President Donald Trump to ease the oil blockade imposed on Cuba.
Sheinbaum, speaking Friday from Michoaca state, added that the state government would provide aid soon.
Recommended stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
“We plan to send this aid by Monday at the latest, if not by the end of this week,” she said. “What they requested was mainly food and other supplies.”
He added that he would continue “diplomatic efforts” with the United States to restore Cuba’s access to oil, the fuel needed to power Cuba’s power grid.
But Mr. Sheinbaum acknowledged that the United States is threatening to impose tariffs on any country that tries to avoid an energy blockade.
“Obviously we don’t want sanctions against Mexico,” she told reporters.
Her remarks came after President Trump issued an executive order last week declaring Cuba’s communist government to be an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the United States and calling for a declaration of a national emergency.
President Trump cited reports of human rights abuses on the island, a mass exodus of Cuban immigrants and asylum seekers, and ties to Russia, China and Iran.
As part of President Trump’s proclamation, the administration promised to impose tariffs on any country that directly or indirectly “provides oil to Cuba.”
The aftermath of President Maduro’s abduction
President Trump has stepped up his pressure campaign against Cuba since January 3, when the United States abducted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
Cuba and Venezuela have long been close regional allies. However, since the ouster of President Maduro, the United States has been putting pressure on the government of Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez.
Venezuela then agreed to comply with U.S. demands to cut off oil and money supplies to Cuba.
“Cuba has lived off tons of oil and gold from Venezuela for years,” President Trump wrote on January 11.
“There’s no more oil or money going to Cuba, no more! We strongly recommend an agreement before it’s too late.”
Anti-government protests have erupted in Cuba in recent years as the country has suffered chronic power outages. President Trump previously said the country seemed “ready to collapse.”
Meanwhile, Mexico’s oil and petroleum sales to Cuba totaled $496 million in 2025. According to state-owned oil company Pemex, sales account for less than 1% of production.
Cuba, whose poverty and energy shortages have worsened under a decades-long U.S. embargo, insists the shipment is purely humanitarian.
Earlier this week, a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters that the UN Secretary-General is “very concerned about the humanitarian situation in Cuba.”
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric added that Cuba’s situation “will deteriorate further, if not collapse, if its oil needs are not met.”
humanitarian aid
Still, critics say Cuba’s humanitarian crisis could lead to an influx of migrants and asylum seekers into the United States, undermining President Trump’s goal of reducing immigration.
Cuba is just 145 kilometers (90 miles) from the southern tip of the United States.
On Thursday, the U.S. State Department announced it would provide an additional $6 million in humanitarian aid to Cuba, on top of the $3 million previously announced.
This aid was to be delivered by the Catholic Church, bypassing the Cuban government.
Carlos Fernández de Cossio, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, denounced the move as duplicity.
“It is completely hypocritical to apply harsh enforcement measures that deny basic economic conditions to millions of people, and then announce that a few will be given soup and canned food,” De Cossio said in a social media post.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, has long been an advocate of overthrowing the Cuban government and championed Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign.
Latin American analysts say Mr. Rubio may have helped orchestrate Mr. Maduro’s abduction as a means to that end.
Some say the Caribbean island has far fewer economic resources than Venezuela, making it a potentially less attractive target for Trump.
But Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has repeatedly vowed to protect the Cuban government to the “last drop of blood.”
Prime Minister Díaz-Canel said on Thursday the government would introduce temporary measures over the next week to address fuel shortages caused by power outages in several provinces.
Diaz-Canel also said his country was open to dialogue with the United States, but there would be no “pressure or preconditions.”
