Betrayal? Cuba Oil Shipment Apparently Cancelled, Sheinbaum Evasive, Says “Sovereign Decision”

ByJay Watts

After a series of reporting in US corporate outlets suggesting that the Mexican government was considering cutting off oil to Cuba and a pressure campaign from the ultra-right in the US, Mexico’s PEMEX has reportedly cancelled a shipment of oil destined for Cuba at the end of January.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who had spent the past month touting Mexico’s long-standing aid for Cuba through multiple governments and over decades and suggesting the oil shipments would continue as a matter of humanitarian solidarity, this morning in her press conference evaded the question, suggesting the responsibility for the cancelled shipment lay in the hands of the state oil company, PEMEX.

“It is a sovereign decision and Pemex makes its decisions; selling or giving for humanitarian reasons has to do with a sovereign decision of many years, it is not recent.”

“So, is the media lying about the oil shipments being suspended?,” the President was asked.

“It is a sovereign decision and it is made when necessary,” the President said, without elaborating. According to Bloomberg reporting yesterday, Pemex has decided to cancel a shipment of crude oil to Cuba that was scheduled for this month.

Later, another reporter brought up the topic more directly: “You’ve said that Pemex makes decisions autonomously and sovereignly, can you then confirm that there was no political consideration in this suspension of oil by Pemex to Cuba?”

The President said: “Pemex makes decisions based on its contractual agreement with Cuba.”

The reporter persisted: “Why is this being done now and not before?”

President Sheinbaum replied: “Well, just like for a while it wasn’t sent and then it was…”

When President Sheinbaum was asked if PEMEX would consider resuming shipments of crude oil to the island, Sheinbaum said that the public would be informed if that happened.