Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez said he expects Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to face "consequences" for sending oil to the Cuban regime, helping its weather its worst economic crisis in the almost 70 years since the Communist revolution.
Speaking to Mexican journalist Leon Krauze for a guest op-ed published by The Washington Post, Gimenez said the consequences could take place during the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement negotiations. He said the talks are "the only mechanism we have to modify the Mexican government's actions."
The lawmaker added that the administration's claim that it is sending the oil on humanitarian grounds is "an excuse President Sheinbaum is using to help Cuba sustain its regime because they match ideologically." He also claimed that the country is "propping up a dictatorship that denies its people their human rights" and said he doesn't consider Mexico to be an "American ally."
Elsewhere in the article, Krauze said Sheinbaum will soon have to "choose" between helping sustain the Cuban regime or being on U.S. counterpart Donald Trump's good side. He added that Sheinbaum is "following in the footsteps of her mentor, former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador," who was historically supportive of authoritarian governments in the region that claimed to be left-wing.
Elsewhere in the post, Krauze said that sending oil to Cuba "does not seem to benefit the Cuban people," who are still enduring the worst economic crisis since the Communist revolution almost 70 years ago. In turn, it is only helping to "entrench the brutal regime."
As a result, Sheinbaum is at a crossroads, Krauze argued, as Mexico "cannot openly sustain the Cuban dictatorship while simultaneously expecting goodwill or flexibility from Washington."
He concluded by saying that the country can "defend its sovereignty and chart its own course but not to the point of irresponsibility." "If obstinacy triumphs over pragmatism, the costs will be real, immediate and borne by regular working people — as it usually is when committed ideologues get their way."
The post was published on the same day the Wall Street Journal claimed that the Trump administration is looking for Cuban insiders to make a deal that will end the Havana regime by the end of the year. Officials, however, don't have a concrete plan to end the Communist government after almost 70 years, the outlet added.
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