The Island needs Mexican oil in exchange for thousands of doctors
14ymedio/EFE, Madrid, 30 September 2024 — This Sunday, Miguel Díaz-Canel was the first president to arrive in Mexico for the inauguration of the incoming president Claudia Sheinbaum, which will be held tomorrow, Tuesday, October 1, four months after she was elected as the successor to Andrés Manuel López Obrador. López Obrador has been one of the closest allies of the Cuban regime, as evidenced by the Pemex oil shipments to the Island and the substantial contracts for sending doctors to the most remote and dangerous areas of Mexico.
The Cuban president landed at Felipe Ángeles International Airport, where he was received with honors by the military guard and an unknown figure: David Kershenobich, future Secretary of Health in the Sheinbaum Government. Barely a week has passed since it was known that Cuba received more than 23 million euros for three contracts from the Social Security Institute and the Cuban Services Marketing company between July 2022 and December 2023, in addition to the announcement that the Island’s health workers will continue arriving in Mexico under the new Government.
Díaz-Canel is accompanied by a delegation that includes his wife, Lis Cuesta, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla; the head of the Department of International Relations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Emilio Lozada García; and the general director of Latin America and the Caribbean, Eugenio Martínez Enríquez. The delegation is completed by the Cuban ambassador to Mexico, Marcos Rodríguez.
A note published by the Presidency of Cuba points out that this is “the fifth time that the Cuban leader visits Mexico since he assumed the presidency of the Island in 2018, which denotes the close relationship he has maintained during all these years with the outgoing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.”
Shortly after Díaz-Canel, Brazilian President Luis Inazio Lula da Silva arrived. President Gustavo Petro of Colombia postponed his trip to Monday after the helicopter crash in which eight members of the Air Force lost their lives. “I want to accompany the families in their pain and follow the investigation personally to determine the causes of the event,” Petro said when announcing his delay. It is expected that this Monday both presidents will meet with Sheinbaum to analyze the possibility of continuing to
