President Claudia Sheinbaum. Image Credit: Gobierno de Mexico.
Mexico-Cuba Solidarity

Mexico’s Sheinbaum Backs López Obrador’s Call for Aid to Cuba

Latina Republic

Mexico’s current and former leaders, along with civil society voices, have renewed a wave of public solidarity with Cuba, framing humanitarian assistance to the island as both a moral duty and a historic expression of Mexican identity.

Speaking in Compostela, President Claudia Sheinbaum declared that Mexico will continue supporting the Cuban people, emphasizing that solidarity and humanism are defining traits of the Mexican nation. Her remarks came as she publicly backed a message issued the previous day by former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had called on citizens to provide direct aid to Cuba.

Addressing residents during an event in the state of Nayarit, Sheinbaum said the Mexican people have long been guided by compassion and a sense of responsibility toward others.

“What defines us,” she said, “is love for our fellow human beings, love for family, love for nature, and love for our country. No one will ever take that away from us. That is what it means to be Mexican.”

 

 

She added that these values have shaped Mexico’s political struggles—from independence and sovereignty to equality, freedom, and democracy—and continue to define the country’s current political era, known as the Fourth Transformation. In that project, she said, a single concept stands out: humanism.

For Sheinbaum, the same humanistic spirit that drives domestic social programs also explains why Mexicans respond with empathy to the struggles of other nations. She recalled how communities across Mexico mobilized to help one another during devastating rains last year in states including Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Veracruz, Hidalgo, and Puebla.

“That kind of generosity,” she said, “belongs to the people of Mexico. We should feel very proud to be Mexican. We are a unique, extraordinary, hardworking people.”

Her statement of support echoed an emotional appeal issued hours earlier by López Obrador, who, despite retiring from public office in 2024, said he felt compelled to speak out on Cuba’s behalf.

“I am in retirement,” the former president wrote, “but it pains me that there are those who seek to destroy our brotherly people of Cuba because of their ideals of freedom and defense of sovereignty.”

 

 

 

In his message, López Obrador argued that the struggle faced by Cuba should not be viewed as distant or unrelated to Mexico. To underscore the point, he recalled the words of former Mexican president Lázaro Cárdenas during the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961.

“It is not right to preach indifference toward their heroic struggle,” Cárdenas had said at the time, “because their fate is ours.”

Building on that historical sentiment, López Obrador invited Mexicans to participate in a citizen-led fundraising effort aimed at sending humanitarian supplies to Cuba. He urged people to deposit contributions into a Banorte account opened by the civil association Humanidad con América Latina, created by writers, journalists, and citizens to purchase food, medicines, oil, and gasoline for the island.

“Let each person contribute what they can,” he wrote.

The expressions of solidarity also drew a response from Cuba’s leadership. On Sunday, Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel publicly thanked López Obrador and the Mexican people for their support.

 

 

“In the name of Cuba,” Díaz-Canel wrote on X, “I will never tire of thanking Mexico for its generous solidarity and for standing alongside the heroic resistance of the Cuban people. We will never forget your permanent and decisive support in strengthening this cherished friendship.”

Together, the statements from Mexico’s current president, its former leader, journalists, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens illustrate how the issue has resonated across political and social spheres in Mexico—reviving a longstanding tradition of solidarity between Mexico and Cuba, now expressed through a grassroots campaign to deliver humanitarian aid to the island.

 

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