MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s president asserted his nation’s right to send out fuel to Cuba and stated on Tuesday that U.S. sanctions on the island were “inhumane,” after a diesel freight delivered by Mexico’s state-run oil business Petroleos Mexicanos got here in Cuba’s Havana port.
Mexico’s left-leaning President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has actually slammed the U.S. embargo versus Cuba and vowed assistance for the Communist-run island, which has actually been struck by a rise in coronavirus infections and a financial downturn that activated unusual demonstrations this month.
A delivery of humanitarian help left from the Mexican port of Veracruz on Tuesday predestined for Cuba, and another is arranged to set sail on Wednesday, bring food, oxygen tanks and other medical materials, Mexico’s foreign ministry stated in a release.
“We are an independent nation,” López Obrador stated at a press conference in action to a concern about whether shipments ran the risk of contravening the U.S. embargo on the Communist-run island.
López Obrador slammed policies he stated made it tough for ships that provided items to Cuba to then dock in U.S. ports, which makes up among the primary elements of the embargo.
Mexico’s foreign ministry stated the help becomes part of a cooperation arrangement in between Mexico and Cuba.
Authorities in Havana have long stated the decades-old U.S. embargo on Cuba has actually triggered extensive difficulty on the island, where thousands required to the streets this month in the demonstrations.
Cuban Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca invited on Monday Mexico’s promise of 2 deliveries of help: “We are not alone,” he stated on Twitter.
The U.S. Treasury Department decreased to comment and the State Department did not right away respond to an ask for remark.
John S. Kavulich, president of New-York based U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, stated there were no particular U.S. sanctions avoiding the sale — or contribution — of Mexican fuel to Cuba.
“The U.S. embargo on Cuba is not focused on Cuba’s imports but on U.S exports to Cuba,” Kavulich stated, including that the Caribbean island did not seem a diplomacy top priority for U.S. President Joe Biden.
López Obrador, who on Monday gotten in touch with Biden to “make a decision” about the “inhumane” embargo on Cuba, recently had actually prepared for that Mexico would send out fuel to produce electrical energy for the island’s health centers.
The Jose Maria Morelos II, a tanker owned and handled by a Pemex system, left recently from the Mexican port of Coatzacoalcos bound for the Caribbean, according to Refinitiv Eikon tanker tracking information.
The vessel, which is bring some 100,000 barrels of diesel according to the foreign ministry’s release, has actually not upgraded its port of location, however it docked at the Havana port late on Monday, the Eikon information revealed.
It is yet uncertain which Cuban entity will get the fuel.
Cuba’s reliance on diesel has actually increased over the last few years as power plants utilizing fuel oil and crude have actually remained in immediate requirement of financial investment and upkeep. The island is likewise having a hard time to provide power plants with gas, stated Jorge Pinon from the University of Texas at Austin.
An oil-for-services plan in between Venezuela and Cuba contravened of U.S. sanctions on the South American oil manufacturer when in 2019 the U.S. Department of Treasury blacklisted a group of tanker owners and vessels associated with the deliveries, at the Venezuelan opposition’s demand.
Cuba’s economy has actually been harmed by Venezuela’s collapse, together with a depression in tourist following the international coronavirus pandemic.
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