The Mexican Foreign Ministry announced this Tuesday the sending of a second humanitarian aid package to Cuba, with nearly 1,200 tons of food, exacerbated by the United States energy blockade.
“This Tuesday, the Papalopan and Huasteco Logistics Support Vessels set sail from the port of Veracruz with a total of 1,193 tons of supplies destined for the civilian population of the island of Cuba,” the Mexican statement stated. A relief from the measures of the North American president.
The two ships transport essential food for the civilian population of the island, on a sea trip with an estimated time of four days.
According to official information, the Papaloapan ship carries most of the cargo: 1,078 tons of beans and powdered milk.
Meanwhile, the Huasteco ship transports 92 tons of beans, in addition to 23 tons of “various foods.”
The Foreign Ministry specified that these 23 tons were delivered by different social organizations, with the support of the Government of Mexico City, through a collection center installed in the capital’s Historic Center, and correspond to a first delivery.
For the transfer, as well as for boarding and disembarking maneuvers, more than 350 naval elements were used, in addition to a crane and five forklifts, according to the statement.
This shipment occurs after the SRE confirmed on February 12 the arrival in Havana of two Mexican ships with more than 814 tons of food and other goods sent as humanitarian aid.
A life line
These two deliveries occur in a context in which the president of Mexico has reiterated that her Government will maintain support for the island with food, but without including oil, after a blockade promoted by Washington and the threat of tariffs on countries that export oil to Cuba.
Before this restriction, Mexico exported $609,392 million to Cuba during 2025, an increase of 10.6% compared to all of 2024, when it recorded income of $551,216 million, according to data from the Bank of Mexico.
In previous days, the president also indicated that there are conversations to explore whether Mexico can facilitate a dialogue between the United States and Cuba, while insisting on the principles of Mexican foreign policy, such as the self-determination of the people and non-intervention.
The Mexican Government framed this new shipment in a “tradition of solidarity” with Latin American countries and, in particular, with Cuba, and maintained that in recent months it also sent aid to other parts of the continent affected by emergencies, such as the fires in California, the United States and Chile, as well as the floods in Texas, among other tragedies caused by natural disasters.
The threat remains
Washington will no longer impose tariffs on whoever supplies crude oil to Cuba, but that does not mean that it cannot apply other types of sanctions to continue putting pressure on the island, two experts argued to EFE this Tuesday.
In response to the high court’s ruling, US President Trump signed a presidential order last week that puts an end to the use of punitive tariffs under the protection of the .
This eliminates one of the pillars of the executive order of January 29, which threatened with levies on oil suppliers to Cuba. But it leaves the other one standing, the one that declares a “national emergency” due to the “unusual and extraordinary threat” that Cuba supposedly poses.
“I don’t dare say that (the executive order of January 29) is a paper tiger. If it has teeth, it is still a tiger, it can still be scary,” the president of the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, the American John Kavulich, told EFE. In his opinion, “the Government of Cuba would make a huge mistake if it understood that the Supreme Court’s decision is a protective shield.”
Cuban-American lawyer Pedro Freyre, partner at the Akerman law firm and specialized in litigation related to Cuba, elaborates along these lines in statements to EFE.
“The White House reversed the implementation of that mechanism, but left the door open to other possible actions. Knowing how they do things in this administration, I think I can assure that they are going to use other tools,” he says.
The energy blockade, which is considered contrary to international law, is already causing serious havoc in Cuba, a country with six years of serious economic crisis behind it that would need to import two thirds of its energy needs.
Hospitals and public transportation are in minimal service, garbage accumulates in the streets due to the lack of a collection system, fuel is severely rationed, blackouts reach 20 hours a day in large areas of the country and the economy is paralyzed.
