Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Friday her country would seek diplomatic solutions and alternatives to help Cuba after the United States threatened tariffs on nations that supply the Caribbean nation with oil.
“We need to know the scope because we don’t want to put our country at risk in terms of tariffs,” Sheinbaum said in a morning press conference, adding that she had instructed her foreign minister to reach out to the U.S. State Department.
Mexico is one of Cuba’s only remaining suppliers of oil and its shipments are a lifeline for the island. Sheinbaum said cutting off oil shipments could cause a serious humanitarian crisis in Cuba, affecting transportation and key infrastructure including hospitals and electricity generation.
“Applying tariffs on countries that supply oil to Cuba could trigger a far-reaching humanitarian crisis, directly affecting hospitals, food and other basic services for the Cuban people, a situation that must be avoided,” she said.
Sheinbaum did not say whether Mexico would cut shipments of oil or refined products to Cuba, which Sheinbaum said accounted for 1% of Mexico’s production, but emphasized the country is looking at alternatives to help the island.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Sheinbaum spoke on Thursday morning, hours before his administration announced the tariffs, but he did not mention the measures, she said.
(Reporting by Sarah Morland and Adriana Barrera; Editing by Kylie Madry and Emily Green)