Sheinbaum Warns of Deeper Cuban Crisis After US Threat

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(Bloomberg) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum warned that the latest US tariffs threatened by Donald Trump on goods from countries that support Cuba with critical energy supplies could lead to a humanitarian disaster there.

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“The imposition of tariffs on countries that supply oil to Cuba could trigger a far-reaching humanitarian crisis, directly affecting hospitals, food supplies and other basic services for the Cuban people,” she read in a statement during her daily press conference.

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Mexico has emerged as a flashpoint in the US leader’s determination to topple Cuba’s communist-run government, a longtime US foe that has seen its energy support from ally Venezuela slide sharply in recent weeks.

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Shienbaum announced that her top diplomat would reach out to his US counterpart to learn more about the scope of Trump’s executive order and emphasize the need to avoid a catastrophe on the already impoverished Caribbean island.

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Trump’s order declared a national emergency while establishing a process to impose the export levies on products from countries like Mexico that ship oil to Cuba.

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Although Mexico has supported Cuba for decades, Sheinbaum stated that she does not intend to sacrifice her own export-driven economy’s interests.

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“We don’t want to put our country at risk in terms of tariffs,” she said. “We want to know the scope of the decree and always seek diplomatic channels.”

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Sheinbaum added she’ll seek alternatives to help Cubans.

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Earlier on Friday, the Cuba’s foreign minister blasted Trump’s move as “blackmail and coercion” that would lead to worse conditions on the island, while the country’s president took to social media to criticize it.

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“This new measure demonstrates the fascist, criminal, and genocidal nature of a clique that has hijacked the interests of the American people for purely personal gain,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote in a post on X.

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Diaz-Canel enjoyed especially warm relations with Sheinbaum’s predecessor and mentor, leftist former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

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After the fall of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, Mexico’s state oil company Pemex became the top foreign energy supplier to Cuba.

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At least 400,000 barrels of crude oil and fuel were received in Havana from Pemex this month, according to shipping reports and vessel movements tracked by Bloomberg. Another cargo ready to be sent from Mexico to Cuba was halted earlier this week.

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Mexican oil is one of the main inputs for Cuba’s failing electricity system, hit by frequent blackouts in recent years, which depends almost entirely on fossil fuels for its operation.

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(Corrects attribution of quote in ninth paragraph.)

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