Energy Advisor

Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies: “One would think the most indebted state-owned oil company in the world, Pemex, would not have the capacity or luxury to gift oil to anyone—and yet, that’s exactly what we’ve seen in Mexico’s case. Under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), Mexico has sent several cargoes of oil to Cuba, joining the ranks of the Maduro regime in Venezuela, which also routinely does the same. In exchange, Cuba generally provides ‘services’ in the form of internal security in the case of Venezuela, and several ‘medical missions’ of doctors in exchange. It should not be surprising that AMLO has gifted oil to the Díaz-Canel regime in Cuba. Díaz-Canel was the guest of honor at Mexico’s Independence Day celebrations in 2021, and AMLO has inveighed frequently against U.S. policy toward Cuba for years. It is clear the Mexican president feels an ideological affinity toward the Cuban president as…”