Republican lawmakers from Florida warned on Tuesday of consequences for the Mexican government, including in the review of the Mexico, United States, and Canada Agreement (USMCA), if it does not halt oil shipments to Cuba, as U.S. President Donald Trump has already ordered in Venezuela. Cuban-American lawmakers reacted by sharing a Bloomberg report on the alleged halt in crude oil shipments to Cuba from Mexico, where President Claudia Sheinbaum avoided denying or confirming the cessation of these operations amid U.S. pressure. "For years, we have demanded the cessation of all oil shipments from Mexico to the dictatorship in Cuba. This is great news and a clear sign that the end of the Cuban regime is approaching." "Last week, I directly asked President Sheinbaum to stop financing the dictatorship with free oil," the legislator noted on social media. According to Pemex reports, Mexico exported 17,200 barrels of crude oil to Cuba in the first nine months of 2025, and in the second week of January, the oil tanker Ocean Mariner arrived in Havana Bay, carrying about 86,000 barrels of fuel from Mexico. The Mexican government is undermining U.S. policy, and we will not tolerate that great betrayal while we renegotiate our free trade agreement," stated Representative Carlos Giménez on X. Giménez, who represents part of Miami-Dade County, has been the most critical U.S. congressman of crude oil shipments from Mexico, which became Cuba's main oil supplier after the U.S. military intervention in Caracas, which led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro on January 3. The lawmaker's statement came as Sheinbaum avoided responding at her daily press conference whether oil shipments to Cuba had stopped, emphasizing that it is a "sovereign" decision of both the state and Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex). The head of state dodged denying or confirming the Bloomberg report, which indicated on Monday that the Mexican state oil company had suspended the transport of Mexican oil to Cuba scheduled for mid-month amid pressure from the United States. Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, also of Cuban origin and representing another part of Miami-Dade County, celebrated the report, considering that "Mexico is beginning to back down and doing the right thing."
