🇲🇽 🇨🇺 🇺🇸 Mexico faces weighty decision over Trump ultimatum on shipping oil to Cuba

The ultimatum presents a major decision point for Mexico, whose leader President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought closer ties to left-wing countries in Latin America but has so far managed to maintain a working relationship with Trump.

Mexico entered the Trump administration’s crosshairs after it became Cuba’s main source for oil after the U.S. captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and stopped shipments of Venezuelan oil to Havana.

In mid-January, Mexico temporarily halted oil shipments to Cuba, although it maintained that the decision was not made because of pressure from Trump.

Shortly afterward, Trump signed an executive order imposing tariffs on goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba.

This week, though, the CEO of Pemex, Mexico’s national oil company, Victor Rodriguez, said that Mexico would maintain exports to Cuba for as long as there was available product, according to Reuters. He also said that the company supplied oil and petroleum products to Cuba worth $496 million last year.

Resuming the shipments could be a major step backward in Mexico’s relations with Trump. Last year, Sheinbaum succeeded in reaching agreements to stave off tariffs threatened by Trump. Mexico is the top trading partner of the United States.

Now, though, the Trump administration is seeking new leverage to remove the communist regime in Cuba. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently said the administration would “love” to see a regime change in Cuba.

“I think we would love to see the regime there change,” Rubio said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last month.

And the situation in Cuba is becoming dire. A shortage of fuel in Cuba has led to blackouts across the country, including in the capital, Havana, and has also affected food prices and transportation. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Thursday that the government would announce a plan next week to address the fuel shortages, Reuters reported.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy-and-environment/4449531/mexico-faces-weighty-decision-trump-ultimatum-shipping-oil-cuba/

📎 Washington Examiner

⚓️ 🇺🇸 🌐 Approx. 100 U.S. Navy ships - 1/3 of the total battle force - are deployed on any given day (as part of normal force posture). And while the U.S. is moving assets within combatant commands, there’s been no surge or major shift in overall force posture related to Iran.

📝 TheIntelFrog:
"The US Navy typically operates on a cycle of maintenance, training and deployment with ~1/3 of the fleet dedicated to each phase at any given time."

"Outside of a near peer war breaking out, this cycle will not change. In order to support a constant presence you must maintain the equipment and train the crews."

"They are not going to surge assets outside of this cycle unless they're forced to, and the present tensions in the Middle East do not require such a shift."

📎 Ian Ellis

🇺🇸🇮🇱🇮🇷 - Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen:

"Any agreement with the current Iranian regime is worthless, and the only solution is to change it.

If we face a threat from Iran, we will deal with it even if an agreement is reached between Tehran and Washington".

@thewarreporterr

✈️ 🇨🇺 🛢 Cuba warns airlines that it will run out of fuel for planes within 24 hours

The energy crisis in Cuba has reached a critical level that is now directly affecting civil aviation. An official aeronautical notice (NOTAM) from José Martí International Airport in Havana confirms that the terminal is out of Jet A-1 fuel, which is standardly used by commercial aircraft.

The lack of aviation fuel is a direct consequence of the deterioration of Cuba's energy system, exacerbated by the disruption of external supplies and the regime's inability to ensure stable imports. For years, Cuba relied on oil from Venezuela for much of its energy consumption, a supply that has been interrupted following Nicolás Maduro's decline.

https://en.cibercuba.com/noticias/2026-02-09-u1-e13-s27061-nid320369-cuba-advierte-aerolineas-24-horas-quedara-combustible

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