Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum criticized the US for “choking off” Cuba, comments that risked angering Washington.
Mexico provided a lifeline to Havana after the US imposed a blockade on Venezuelan oil, on which Cuba relied to power its economy. However, threats from the US — which is trying to weaken Cuba’s economy in a bid to oust its regime — have forced Sheinbaum to halt crude transfers, leaving the Caribbean nation entirely without oil imports for the first time in years.
Still, the Mexican leader, caught between US demands and her party’s Havana-friendly left wing, sent more than 800 tons of aid to Cuba, a move that a Republican US congressman said risked “undermining our country’s policy.”