Cuba’s President in Mexico for Sheinbaum Inauguration
Diaz-Canel is visiting Mexico for the fifth time since 2018
The Island, which is facing daily power outages, needs Mexican oil in exchange for thousands of doctors.
HAVANA TIMES – 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 try a joint mediation of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico that promotes a dialogue between Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the opposition, which claims the victory of their candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, with 70% of the votes in the July 28 elections.
Díaz-Canel will have several unspecified meetings this Monday, as well as one with “members of the Cuban state mission.” However, the official press makes explicit the exchange about education, culture, sport, the preservation of heritage and the environment, in addition to Health, with special emphasis not only on staff contracts, but also on those for medical students. There is no mention, however, of the shipments of fuel – presumably free – nor of the frustrated agreement on the Mayan Train, with which Mexico hoped to import 200,000 tons of stone from the Island but the total remained at just 7,000, without counting the human and environmental damage of López Obrador’s star project.
At the opening of the Chetumal station, the president-elect starred this Sunday in her last official act prior to the inauguration. “I’m ready, I’m strong. The people of Mexico are ready to start the second stage of the ’fourth transformation’,” said Sheinbaum, referring to the term with which the political project of the ruling party is known.
“In recent months, I have witnessed how beautiful it is to see a president merge with his people and how exciting it is to see a people merge with their president,” she said at the end of her so-called “transition tour.”
“I’m not idolizing you, but I’m proud to say that you are among the greats and that for millions of Mexicans you are the best president our country has ever had,” said Sheinbaum of her predecessor, before praising his achievements: “a new economic model, the foundations of a new judiciary, the foundations of a new thought” and “a politicized and cheerful people,” among others.
“The Mayan Train in the face of all adversities is a reality,” Sheinbaum celebrated, and she said that, contrary to criticism, “the train means the preservation of the largest ecological rainforest after the Amazon.”
López Obrador, who highlighted the role of the Armed Forces in the infrastructure, joked that its inauguration will probably mean vacations for the military workers. “Don’t believe me too much because the new president is very hardworking, and I’m sure she already knows what the trains from the north are going to do.”
The flagship project of the Mexican president contemplates 1,554 kilometers with seven sections that cross five states and 36 municipalities with a total of 34 stations. Sheinbaum announced in July the creation of two new passenger train lines, one departing from Mexico City to Guadalajara, and the other to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, on the border with the United States, which she described as a “Mayan Train to the north.”
The new president must, however, look at her borders as a priority. There, hundreds of migrants and refugees asked her this Sunday for protection from the violence they suffer.
During a procession with religious leaders from the Catholic Church, the attendees of the 110th World Day of the Migrant and Refugee in Tapachula, Chiapas, called on the Mexican Government to provide free and safe passage for migrants to be able to reach the border with the United States.
Evelin Leonel Villanueva, from Honduras, requested support from Sheinbaum to expedite appointments for interviews in the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (Comar), since they have been delayed by six months.
“We feel insecure but also safe with the Mexicans who help us, who can give us free passage to the border and enable transportation for low-income people. It is difficult for us to safely reach the border to be with our family,” she said.
Translated by Regina Anavy for Translating Cuba.