MIAMI — Florida Republican Congressman Carlos A. Giménez escalated a months-long public campaign against Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum this week, accusing her of perpetuating Cuba’s government and warning that her position could jeopardize Mexico’s standing as a trade partner ahead of USMCA renegotiations.
The Latest Broadside
In a post on X dated July 29, Giménez condemned what he called “narcopresidente Claudia Sheinbaum’s” support for Cuba's communist government, saying, “the Mexican government is perpetuating the longest-running dictatorship in the region.” Giménez continued a pattern of increasingly personal attacks he has leveled at Sheinbaum since early February.
Giménez, the only Cuban-born member of Congress, has framed his criticism explicitly around trade leverage, previously warning that Mexico’s continued support for Havana is “not that of an ally” at a moment when the two countries are engaged in USMCA renegotiation talks.
A Pattern Going Back Months
This is not a one-off comment. Giménez first targeted Sheinbaum in early February after she defended continuing food and humanitarian shipments to Cuba despite U.S. sanctions, calling the aid effort a matter of preventing a humanitarian crisis rather than a political statement.
Giménez responded on social media that Washington did not “understand the Mexican President’s intention of keep on undermining our country’s policy,” accusing her of “helping the murderous and cruel dictatorship stepping on the Cuban people.” Days later, as Mexico weighed resuming crude oil shipments to Cuba through Pemex, Giménez renewed the attack, accusing Sheinbaum of “oxygenating” what he called a dictatorship in its terminal phase, and citing EFE reporting that Pemex had sent Cuba roughly $496 million worth of crude in 2025.
The Policy Backdrop
Giménez’s campaign against Sheinbaum sits inside a broader tightening of U.S. Cuba policy this year. In January, the White House declared a national emergency tied to Cuba and created a mechanism allowing additional tariffs on countries that supply oil to the island — the same mechanism Giménez has repeatedly invoked in warning Mexico of possible consequences.
That framework has continued to expand throughout the year, part of a pattern that has also included a 100-page State Department report tying Cuba to decades of influence over the American left and a global counterterrorism ministerial where Secretary of State Marco Rubio placed Cuba’s intelligence networks at the center of his remarks.
Sheinbaum’s Position
Sheinbaum has consistently drawn a distinction between humanitarian assistance and the broader diplomatic dispute over oil. “This is not a matter of governments, but of support to avoid a humanitarian crisis in Cuba,” she said in February, reiterating that her government considers economic sanctions unjust when their effects fall on ordinary Cubans rather than the government itself.
Mexico’s government, through the Mexican Navy, has carried out multiple humanitarian shipments to the island this year, including deliveries in February and March, alongside the separate and more diplomatically fraught question of whether Pemex will resume oil exports to Havana.
Why This Matters for U.S.-Mexico Relations
Giménez’s repeated invocation of USMCA leverage adds a new pressure point to a bilateral relationship Sheinbaum has otherwise worked carefully to manage throughout her first year in office, alongside tariff disputes, an active trade renegotiation, and recurring friction over U.S. security operations inside Mexican territory.
While Giménez is a single member of Congress rather than a representative of the Trump administration’s official negotiating position, his rhetoric reflects a broader Cuban-American political constituency in South Florida that has consistently pushed for harder line U.S. policy toward any government seen as insufficiently aligned against Havana — and his explicit linkage of Cuba policy to trade consequences signals one way that pressure could migrate from social media rhetoric into an actual negotiating position if it gains traction within the administration.
Neither Sheinbaum’s government nor the White House has indicated that Giménez’s specific warnings have shaped the substance of ongoing USMCA discussions.
For now, the dispute remains centered on public statements rather than a formal diplomatic or trade action, though the recurring nature of Giménez’s criticism — now spanning six months — suggests this is likely to remain a recurring friction point in U.S.-Mexico relations as long as Mexico continues its humanitarian engagement with Cuba.
