U.S. Pressures Mexico Over Fuel Supply to Crisis-Hit Cuba
- U.S. lawmakers are pressuring the U.S. Administration to demand Mexico end its subsidized oil shipments to Cuba by leveraging the 2026 renegotiation of the USMCA trade agreement.
- Mexico, through a subsidiary of its state oil company Pemex, has defended its shipments of fuel to Cuba as humanitarian aid intended to prevent widespread blackouts on the island.
- An investigation found that Mexico shipped over $3 billion worth of subsidized fuel to Cuba in just four months of 2025, a figure three times higher than the shipments during the final two years of the previous administration.
The U.S. blockade of Venezuela to prevent sanctioned tankers from shipping oil to and from the South American country is not the only geopolitical game involving the United States in its backyard in the Western Hemisphere.
U.S. lawmakers are not happy with Mexico sending fuel shipments to Cuba. Power outages and massive blackouts have become more frequent on the Communist-run island since shipments from sanctioned Venezuela dwindled and left Cuba’s petroleum-dependent power system at the mercy of alternative supplies.
Some of this supply has come over the years from Mexico, which continues to insist that the shipments are of a humanitarian nature and aim to “avoid a crisis of blackouts”.
U.S. lawmakers representing Miami and Florida have urged the Trump Administration to pressure Mexico with the Cuba card when
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) comes up for review in 2026. They insist the U.S. Administration should require Mexico to end shipments of oil to Cuba, along with stepping up efforts to combat narco cartels.
In just four months of 2025, between May and August, Mexico shipped more than $3 billion worth of subsidized fuel to Cuba through Gasolinas Bienestar, a subsidiary of state oil company Pemex, according to an investigation by Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad (MCCI). The figure is three times higher than the total shipments during the final two years of the previous administration.
MCCI found that at least 58 fuel shipments — including gasoline, diesel, and crude — departed from Mexican ports over just four months. The cargoes were tracked through maritime monitoring platforms, showing consistent routes between Mexico and Cuba.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum this week defended the country’s supply of fuel to Cuba, the most recent of which was an 80,000-barrel shipment from Pemex.
Cuba is in desperate need of oil and fuel to keep the lights on, especially in light of the U.S. blockade offshore Venezuela, which further restricts vital supplies that previously flowed from Venezuela to the island nation.
Even before the blockade, for the fifth time this year, Cuba suffered a massive power outage after a partial collapse of the electrical grid.
Cuba’s power system has deteriorated in recent years as the fuel and oil supply crisis has hit the old oil-fueled power plants heavily.
Cuba’s power generation is heavily dependent on oil products. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Cuba’s energy supply is mainly oil-based, with oil products accounting for more than 80% of power generation.
Oil also represents 84% of Cuba’s total energy supply.
However, Cuba’s imports of oil and fuel, mostly from Venezuela, Russia, and Mexico, have slumped as production at these countries has been constrained by a lack of investment in Mexico’s case, and U.S. sanctions in Venezuela and Russia’s case.
Cuba’s outdated power plants and weak grid now supply just 50–70% of electricity demand in the country, causing almost daily blackouts and repeated nationwide outages.
Reliance on poor-quality heavy crude and unstable oil imports from Venezuela has forced Cuba to turn to Mexico and China for emergency fuel shipments. Cuba is also considering investment in solar power generation to try to replace some of its dependence on oil for its electricity supply.
Mexico’s Sheinbaum said this week, “Later, we will make public what the price is as well as the cost to transport and unload the oil.”
“The motives are humanitarian for the people of Cuba,” the Mexican president added, as carried by the Latin Times.
But Miami Republican U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez, who chairs the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security, last month called on U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to ensure “Mexico ends its disturbing relationship with the murderous regime in Havana.”
In a letter obtained by the Miami Herald, Giménez asked Rubio and Bessent to demand in the 2026 renegotiation of the USMCA that Mexico “step up efforts in combating and eliminating narco-terrorist organizations… halt trafficking of medical professionals from Cuba, victims of modern-day slavery” and “demand Mexico end its oil shipments to the regime in Havana.”
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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