Mexico sends fuel to Cuba in wake of civil unrest

Mexico's state-owned Pemex has dispatched a fuel cargo to Cuba, making good on the Mexican government's pledge to help the island to weather a crisis that sparked rare protests last week.

A medium-range (MR) refined products tanker owned by Pemex is scheduled to offload in Cuba this week, ship-tracking services showed. The Mexico-flagged Jose Maria Morelos II vessel is carrying close to 240,000 bl of unspecified product, according to oil analytics firm Vortexa. The ship loaded at Pajaritos on Mexico's Gulf coast on 23 July and is expected to arrive in Havana, Cuba, at 4:20am ET on 27 July.

The tanker's declared destination as Tuxpan, Mexico, but its transponder shows it off the coast of Cuba, a pattern consistent with freight movements around sanctioned countries.

This would be the first such product cargo to go from Mexico to Cuba in recent years, based on Vortexa's records.

Mexico's foreign ministry had indicated that the country could send gasoline or diesel to Cuba as a humanitarian gesture. Mexico had already sent medical and food donations to the island on navy vessels, on orders from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Cuba relies on its close ally Venezuela for oil under an opaque state-to-state barter agreement signed in 2000. But as Venezuela's national oil industry has deteriorated in recent years, fuel supply in both countries has dwindled. The deficit is aggravated by US sanctions. Havana blames a Cold War-era US economic embargo for prolonged blackouts and food shortages, a narrative shared by Caracas, which came under US oil sanctions in 2019.

The Cuba embargo has ample exceptions, including for food, medicine and agricultural products.

Mexico imports most of its gasoline and diesel, but it has a surplus of high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) as several of its key refineries lack cokers to process it into higher-value products. HSFO can be burned in power generators or used as shipping fuel, but tighter emissions requirements in many areas have reduced demand for it in recent years.

Cuba has long suffered from a lack of basic goods and services, made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. The protests that erupted on 11 July were swiftly quelled by the government of President Miguel Diaz-Canel, successor to the Castro brothers. Cuban security forces have rounded up protesters and journalists, and cut internet service that was made available only a few years ago.

The US, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador were among a diverse group of countries that denounced Cuba's actions in a statement today.

The US is preparing to relax its restrictions on remittances to the island after levying sanctions on Cuba's defense minister and special forces that it deems responsible for the repression.

The Organization of American States (OAS) is meeting on 28 July "to address the situation in Cuba." Lopez Obrador has said Latin America needs a new body to replace the OAS, in which Cuba's membership is suspended.

By Sergio Meana and Patricia Garip