Mexico City.
Dozens of protesters, convened by the Mexican Movement of Solidarity with Cuba, gathered this Sunday in front of the former United States embassy in Mexico, on Paseo de la Reforma, to condemn President Donald Trump’s decree imposing tariffs on countries that supply oil to the island and to demand that the government of Claudia Sheinbaum maintain crude oil shipments to Cuba.
“Mexican oil for the Cubans!” they chanted.
During the event, from a platform and microphone, a statement from the Movement was read denouncing the US president’s decision as a unilateral and extraterritorial measure that violates international law and prolongs the economic blockade in place for more than 60 years, which it described as a systematic policy of suffocation against the Cuban population.
“We denounce this decision as not an isolated incident, but rather the continuation of an economic war waged for over sixty years through the criminal blockade imposed against Cuba. This blockade has caused enormous economic damage, limited access to food, medicine, technology, and financing, and directly and daily affects the civilian population. Due to its systematic, prolonged, and deliberate nature, this policy can and must be called what it is: an act of genocide against the Cuban people,” they stated.
For its part, the Internationalist Group / LIVI criticized the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo for allegedly yielding to the will of the United States.
“In the recent negotiations, for example, regarding the free trade agreement between Mexico, Canada, and the United States, Claudia Sheinbaum has responded quite capitulatingly to Donald Trump’s policy of cutting off oil supplies. As we know, since Maduro’s oil extraction in Venezuela, Mexico became the number one supplier of oil to Cuba. However, now Pemex has also warned that it will cut off oil supplies,” said Sherezada Leyva, a member of the Group.
Furthermore, she accused the Morena government of maintaining a policy subordinate to the United States by allowing military exercises by the Southern Command in the Yucatan Peninsula, which —she said— are aimed towards Cuba, and of reinforcing a restrictive immigration policy in the north of the country through the National Guard.
At the event, the organizations and the José Martí Association of Cuban Residents in Mexico called for strengthening international solidarity, demanding an end to the blockade, and supporting the Cuban people, reiterating that “Cuba is not alone.”
Note. “Morena” refers to the MORENA Party of President Claudia Sheinbaum. MORENA is an acronym that stands for the Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional.