Mexican president seeks to resolve Trump’s oil embargo on Cuba diplomatically

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday she is using all available diplomatic channels to ensure the resumption of crude oil shipments to Cuba, which is facing a threat from Washington to deprive it of vital oil supplies.

Cuba, which is reeling from a crippling economic crisis, has long relied on oil supplies from Venezuela, whose president was ousted in a US military operation last month.

Afterwards, US President Donald Trump declared control of Venezuelan oil and vowed to deprive Cuba of it, threatening to impose tariffs on any other country that intervenes to help US-sanctioned Havana.

Sheinbaum has been reluctant to cut off oil supplies to Cuba for fear of triggering a humanitarian crisis, but at the same time she is careful not to put her country at risk of Trump’s tariffs.

On Monday, Trump announced that Mexico would stop exporting oil to what he called the “failed state” of Cuba.

The Mexican supply cuts will exacerbate Cuba’s most serious economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Sheinbaum announced Tuesday that Mexico would send humanitarian aid to Cuba this week as it seeks an agreement with Washington that would also allow it to send oil.

“We’re studying the scope of the tariffs that Trump has threatened, and we are using all diplomatic channels… We haven’t yet reached an agreement on this”.

Venezuelan oil has been a lifeline for Cuba, which in turn sent doctors, teachers and other professionals to Venezuela.