México busca vías para enviar crudo a Cuba; dice que la isla está al día con los pagos – Chicago Tribune
Associated Press
CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (AP) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that the miners her government was following in the search for diplomatic channels to finance oil sales to Cuba had spent the year with $500 million, and assured that the island was up to date with its pages.
Sheinbaum once again defended his government’s decision to take a humanitarian path in Cuba and declared that “we have used all diplomatic channels to be able to resolve this problem” and prevent Mexico from being affected by the threat that President Donald Trump launched last week to impose serious sanctions on countries that sell raw food on the island.
Before Trump’s announcement, state oil company Petróleo Mexicanos (Pemex) had suspended shipping crude to Cuba, although the reasons for the decision were not stated.
The paralysis of Mexico’s leaders came at a strong moment for Cuba due to the fact that, since the beginning of the year, Venezuela — its energy supplier mayor — has also suspended shipments to the island as part of the operation aimed at carrying out the American military in Caracas to capture President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
According to international experts, Maduro’s government—estrecho aliado del gobierno cubano—sends the island about 35,000 barrels per day, while Russia requests 7,500 barrels per day. Last September, Mexico requested from Cuba 19,200 barrels of logs, consisting of 17,200 of crude oil and 2,000 of derived products, according to records of the Comisión de Bolsa y Valores de Estados Unidos, (SEC for our acronyms in English).
When discussing oil sales to Cuba, the general director of Pemex, Víctor Rodríguez, was parco and said during the presidential conference that oil had signed a solo contract with the island since 2023 and that in those years sales amounted to $367 million.
Rodríguez informed that sales of oil and derivative products to Cuba represented last year 496 million dollars and that the island had “no invoice sold in accordance with the contract.”
In this regard, Sheinbaum said that Cuban authorities “contract like someone else’s supplier” and acknowledged that what is mandated for humanitarian aid is “much more” than what is sold by contract, but did not provide details.
The oil directorate criticized claims by analysts and government adversaries that operations with Cuba affected Pemex and noted that sales to the island last year represented “less than 1 percent of crude oil production under the terms of the sale” and argued that the suministro “we are doing this for humanitarian reasons… as well as for commercial reasons.”
The Mexican government is sending humanitarian aid this week to the island, which finds itself in a complex situation of lack of energy and serious economic problems.
