MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Mexico’s president yesterday asserted his country’s right to send fuel to Cuba and said U.S. sanctions on the island were “inhumane,” after a diesel cargo shipped by Mexico’s state-run oil company Petroleos Mexicanos arrived in Cuba’s Havana port.
Mexico’s left-leaning President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has criticized the U.S. embargo against Cuba https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexico-foreign-minister-says-looking-into-humanitarian-aid-cuba-2021-07-13 and pledged support for the Communist-run island, which has been hit by a surge in coronavirus infections and an economic slump that triggered rare protests this month https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/street-protests-break-out-cuba-2021-07-11.
A shipment of humanitarian aid departed from the Mexican port of Veracruz on Tuesday destined for Cuba, and another is scheduled to set sail on Wednesday, carrying food, oxygen tanks and other medical supplies, Mexico’s foreign ministry said in a release.
“We are an independent nation,” Lopez Obrador said at a news conference in response to a question about whether deliveries risked contravening the U.S. embargo on the Communist-run island.
Lopez Obrador criticized policies he said made it difficult for ships that delivered goods to Cuba to then dock in U.S. ports, which constitutes one of the main aspects of the embargo.