Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said she will send humanitarian aid to Cuba this week, including food and other humanitarian assistance, as a dispute over oil shipments draws renewed attention to Havana’s energy supply. She said her comments came after U.S. President Donald Trump said he asked her to suspend oil shipments to the Caribbean island.
Speaking at a public event in the northern Mexican state of Sonora, Sheinbaum said she did not discuss Cuban affairs during a phone conversation with Trump on Thursday. She added that her government is seeking to “diplomatically solve everything related to the oil shipments (to Cuba) for humanitarian reasons.”
Trump, for his part, told reporters that he had asked the Mexican president not to send oil to Cuba. The exchange underscores the role of crude and refined-product deliveries in Mexico’s relationship with Havana and the pressure facing Cuban authorities as U.S. actions reshape regional energy flows.
The latest comments also follow a shift in the oil supply network after a U.S. military operation carried out in early January to remove Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro. After that operation, Venezuela suspended oil shipments to Cuba, which had been declining in recent years, according to the report.
With Venezuela stepping back, Mexico became the main supplier of crude oil and refined products to Cuba. In its most recent report, Mexico’s state oil company Pemex said it shipped nearly 20,000 barrels of oil per day to Cuba from January through Sept. 30, 2025, a figure described as one of the island’s most important lifelines.
The report also cited that the volume later fell. In September, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Mexico City, and after that trip, Jorge Piñon, an expert at the University of Texas Energy Institute who tracks shipments using satellite technology, said the figure had dropped to about 7,000 barrels.