The Cuban regime of Miguel Diaz-Canel is turning to oil these days amid one of the worst fuel crises on the island for its allies in Mexico and Russia looking for oil, Mexican media confirmed.
The Reforma agency confirmed, with maritime navigation records, that in recent weeks the Cuban regime has turned to oil companies from Mexico and Russia to offset dwindling deliveries from Venezuela, its main supplier. The South American nation does not even have the conditions to supply itself and therefore, cut off its shipments to the island.
Mexico has shipped large quantities of fuel to the island in recent weeks, according to ship tracking data from Refinitiv Eikon. This is the case, for example, of the Bicentenario tanker, owned by state oil company Pemex, which has unloaded fuel twice so far this April. Last Sunday he was seen leaving the port of Havana.
A Pemex worker who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak confirmed to Aztec media that large quantities of oil were being shipped from the unit to the island, although he did not specify the number of loads.
Another privately owned vessel, the Panamanian-flagged Fortunato, also visited the island twice this year with liquefied petroleum gas from the Mexican port of Salina Cruz.
Jorge Pinon, director of the Latin American and Caribbean Energy Program at the University of Texas, said Russian and Mexican supplies appear to make up for an insufficient amount of fuel drawn from the Nicolás Maduro regime.
However, according to the shipment calendar of state-owned PDVSA in Venezuela, the country sent a shipment of crude oil to Cuba last weekend and plans to send more oil and gasoline in the coming days.
The report also indicated that the regime has imported at least five shipments of Russian oil and fuel since November from terminals in the Caribbean and Europe. Amid a crisis that has almost paralyzed the country, the regime has turned to its political allies.
Faced with this situation, the Cuban regime was forced to postpone the May 1 parade, which had been one of its displays of communist propaganda. Furthermore, several universities on the island have temporarily suspended their face-to-face classes until the situation improves.
