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2 hours ago
Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has warned that Donald Trump’s move to slap new tariffs on countries sending oil to Cuba could trigger a humanitarian crisis on the island, which is already suffering from chronic fuel shortages and regular blackouts.
The US president signed an executive order on Thursday declaring a national emergency and laying the groundwork for such tariffs, ratcheting up the pressure to topple the communist government in Havana.
A White House statement cited the Cuban government’s alleged ties to Russia, Hamas and Hezbollah to explain the new tariffs. While the statement did not name Mexico, Sheinbaum’s government has been the top supplier of oil to the island since 2025, surpassing Russia and Venezuela.
Sheinbaum said on Friday that her government would seek more information about the tariffs from the US state department, while looking for alternative ways provide humanitarian aid to the Cuban people.
“We will seek a way, without putting Mexico at risk, of course, but always seeking solidarity with the Cuban people,” she told reporters.
The new tariff policy comes as Cuba struggles with increasingly severe blackouts. Sheinbaum said the tariffs could “directly affect hospitals, food supplies and other basic services for the Cuban people”.
Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, said in a post on X that Trump sought to “suffocate” the island’s economy and that the tariffs revealed the “fascist, criminal, and genocidal nature of a clique that has hijacked the interests of the American people for purely personal gain”.
Cuba’s situation has become even more precarious since the US captured and transported Nicolás Maduro, a key ally of the government in Havana, from Venezuela at the start of the year.
A week later, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post: “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!”
On Thursday, the Financial Times reported an estimate that Cuba only has enough oil to last 15 to 20 days at current levels of demand and domestic production, and could soon face sharp rationing.
Sheinbaum’s comments came after a week of increasing threats from Washington. US officials briefed that gunboats could be deployed off Cuba, and said efforts were under way to find Cuban ministers prepared to collaborate with the US.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mike Hammer, the US chargé d’affaires in Havana, said: “The Cubans have complained for years about a ‘blockade’, but now there is going to be a real blockade.”
The issue of oil shipments to Cuba is a fraught one for Sheinbaum, who is striving to show the Trump administration that Mexico is a partner on trade and security without alienating the left wing of her party, Morena.
The Trump administration has recently repeated its threats of unilateral military strikes on drug-trafficking cartels in Mexico, just as the two countries begin to renegotiate the trillion-dollar USMCA North American free trade agreement.
In Havana, 12-hour daily blackouts have become commonplace. Many Cuban families are struggling to cook food, finding it hard to get hold of gas canisters, and are resorting to cooking over charcoal.
But Jorge Piñon, an expert on Cuba’s energy at the University of Texas, said the situation has the potential to grow even more severe.
“If we do not see any crude oil or fuel deliveries within the next six to eight weeks, then the government will have a major crisis on their hands,” he said.
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