Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has adopted a firmer stance towards the United States, expressing concern over the deaths of Mexican citizens in US custody and criticising the Trump administration’s energy blockade of Cuba. The shift marks a departure from her previously measured approach to provocations from Washington.
On Tuesday, Sheinbaum demanded investigations into the deaths of 15 Mexican migrants in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centres over the past year, calling the fatalities “unacceptable” and the facilities “incompatible with human rights standards”. She instructed Mexican consulates to visit detention centres daily and said her government would raise the issue with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and consider an appeal to the United Nations.
“We are going to defend Mexicans at every level,” Sheinbaum said, adding that “there are many Mexicans whose only crime is not having papers”. The latest death involved 49-year-old Alejandro Cabrera Clemente in Louisiana. The White House declined to comment on the rising death toll or Sheinbaum’s tougher rhetoric.
Sheinbaum has also pushed back against US pressure on Cuba, describing the energy blockade as “unjust” and accusing the US of “suffocating” Cubans with sanctions. While she reluctantly paused oil shipments to Cuba after Trump threatened tariffs, she insisted that “Mexico has every right to send fuel, whether for humanitarian or commercial reasons”.
Analysts suggest that Sheinbaum’s bolder tone reflects a calculation that she can challenge the US on certain fronts as long as progress continues on trade and security cooperation. The US’s growing dependence on Mexican energy amid the Iran war may also be tempering Washington’s response.
