{"id":728605,"date":"2026-04-15T01:35:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T01:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/728605\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T01:35:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T01:35:17","slug":"mexicos-claudia-sheinbaum-takes-a-firmer-stance-with-trump-on-migrant-deaths-and-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/728605\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum takes a firmer stance with Trump on migrant deaths and Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEXICO CITY (AP) \u2014 The Mexican government on Tuesday protested the deaths of its citizens in U.S. immigration custody as President Claudia Sheinbaum<\/a> pushes back against U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> policies on multiple fronts.<\/p>\n

The progressive Mexican leader has walked a careful line with Trump for more than a year, addressing provocations with a measured tone and meeting U.S. requests to crack down on criminal cartels more so than her predecessors, in an effort to offset threats of tariffs<\/a> and U.S. military action against the gangs.<\/p>\n

But in the wake of mounting deaths of Mexican citizens in custody of immigration officials<\/a> and the Trump administration\u2019s decision to impose an energy blockade on Cuba \u2014 a key Mexican ally \u2014 Sheinbaum has taken a harder line.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the president raise her tone,\u201d said Palmira Tapia, an analyst for Mexico\u2019s Center for Economic Research and Teaching. \u201cThere\u2019s been a shift, and we\u2019ve seen Sheinbaum be more vocal than before.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters after disembarking Air Force One, Sunday, April 12, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters after disembarking Air Force One, Sunday, April 12, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)<\/p>\n

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Deaths in ICE custody<\/p>\n

Sheinbaum\u2019s latest rebuke came on Tuesday, a day after 49-year-old Mexican citizen Alejandro Cabrera Clemente died in a detention center in Louisiana of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, the fifteenth death of a Mexican citizen in U.S. custody in little over a year. <\/p>\n

Mexico\u2019s government quickly called the deaths \u201cunacceptable\u201d and the ICE detention centers \u201cincompatible with human rights standards and the protection of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a Tuesday press briefing Sheinbaum added that she requested investigations into the deaths of the 15 migrants, and instructed Mexican consulates to visit detention centers daily. <\/p>\n

She said her government would raise the deaths in detention centers to Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and was considering appealing to the United Nations. Her government already said it would support lawsuits in the U.S. filed by detainees over poor conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to defend Mexicans at every level,\u201d Sheinbaum said, adding that \u201cthere are many Mexicans whose only crime is not having papers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The moves by Sheinbaum\u2019s government come on top of mounting disapproval in the U.S. of Trump\u2019s immigration enforcement. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say Trump has \u201cgone too far\u201d in sending federal immigration agents into American cities, according to a February AP-NORC poll<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing dissatisfaction around ICE activities in the United States creates a more comfortable platform for members of the Mexican government to raise concerns about the fate of Mexican citizens,\u201d said Carin Zissis, vice president of content strategy for the Council of the Americas.<\/p>\n

A \u2018cool head\u2019<\/p>\n

Sheinbaum has maintained what she has described as a \u201ccool head\u201d to provocations by Trump, who has exerted more pressure on Latin America than any U.S. leader in decades. In just a few months, the Trump administration deposed Venezuela\u2019s president, imposed an oil blockade on Cuba<\/a> and threatened military intervention<\/a> against Mexican cartels.<\/p>\n

She has to balance maintaining a strong relationship with Trump while repeatedly stressing Mexico\u2019s sovereignty to appease her own base. Her measured responses resemble that of a lawyer rather than the head of Mexico\u2019s most powerful populist political movement.<\/p>\n

Her government has come down harder on cartels than her predecessor and bolstered trade relations ahead of renegotiations of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, free trade agreement. <\/p>\n

While Trump has taken public jabs at Sheinbaum \u2014 at one point suggesting cartels have greater control over Mexico than her government \u2014 he\u2019s also regularly made nods to their amicable relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is really a nice person, I like her a lot,\u201d he said last month, proceeding to imitate the Mexican leader in a high voice.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

People walk a dog on a street in Havana, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo\/Ramon Espinosa)<\/p>\n

People walk a dog on a street in Havana, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo\/Ramon Espinosa)<\/p>\n

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Divide over Cuba<\/p>\n

But shifting geopolitics in the region, and the mounting deaths in ICE facilities, have also opened the door for Sheinbaum to take a firmer stance. <\/p>\n

The main point of contention between the two governments has been Cuba. Solidarity with the U.S. adversary has been a cornerstone of Mexico\u2019s political ethos since the Cuban revolution, which Fidel Castro, Ernesto \u201cChe\u201d Guevara and a group of exiles famously planned while in Mexico City. It\u2019s a particular sticking point with her progressive Morena party, whose founder ushered Sheinbaum into office. <\/p>\n

The relationship hit a hurdle in late January, when Trump announced he would slap tariffs on any country that sends oil to Cuba<\/a>. The move directly impacted Mexico, which for years has shipped oil to Cuba.<\/p>\n

While Sheinbaum reluctantly paused oil shipments to Cuba<\/a>, she has continued to challenge the Trump administration\u2019s push for regime change.<\/p>\n

\u201cMexico has every right to send fuel, whether for humanitarian or commercial reasons,\u201d Sheinbaum said earlier this week.<\/p>\n

She has described Trump\u2019s energy blockade of Cuba as \u201cunjust\u201d and accused the U.S. government of \u201csuffocating\u201d Cubans with sanctions. The Mexican leader has sent shipments of food and other aid<\/a>, and even donated $1,000 of her own money to relief efforts in a symbolic gesture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a Rubicon issue for her,\u201d said Arturo Sarukhan, former Mexican ambassador to the U.S.<\/p>\n

Even then, the moves by the Mexican leader have raised eyebrows in Washington.<\/p>\n

Sheinbaum recently announced that her country would continue to have Cuban doctors work in the country<\/a>, diverging from other nations in Central America and the Caribbean that have ended their programs in the face of U.S. pressure. <\/p>\n

It was met with veiled threats from the Trump administration, which pointed to visa restrictions imposed on Central American officials with ties to what U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio referred to as a \u201cforced labor scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House offered no comment on Tuesday about Sheinbaum\u2019s tougher stances, nor did it comment on the rising number of deaths of Mexican nationals in ICE custody.<\/p>\n

Greater leverage<\/p>\n

Sheinbaum\u2019s recently bolder tone suggests a calculation that her administration can push back on some politically important fronts as long as they also are making progress on strengthening trade and meeting Trump administration requests on security and migration, Zissis said.<\/p>\n

At the same time, surging energy prices due to the Iran war<\/a> have made the U.S. more dependent on allies in Mexico, she and other analysts said, prompting Washington to walk back from any drastic moves against Mexican cartels or Cuba, at least in the short term.<\/p>\n

\u201dWe\u2019re at a moment where, due to global events, we\u2019re facing different economic uncertainties. That gives the U.S. and Mexico more reason to work together,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

At the same time, former Mexican ambassador Sarukhan said that Sheinbaum will have to be careful not to put at risk upcoming USMCA renegotiations, for which her government has made painstaking efforts to build a strong foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going to be interesting going forward is whether she can continue to have her cake and eat it too,\u201d Sarukhan said.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Weissert reported from Washington D.C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEXICO CITY (AP) \u2014 The Mexican government on Tuesday protested the deaths of its citizens in U.S. immigration…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":728606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[301616,301619,301617,1613,15581,57214,69,10102,135127,57,76602,409,6087,1612,410,2222,14004,15583,231219,50,53197,301618,80,2938,2065,67,370,93,103],"class_list":["post-728605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-alejandro-cabrera-clemente","tag-arturo-sarukhan","tag-carin-zissis","tag-central-america","tag-claudia-sheinbaum","tag-cuba","tag-donald-trump","tag-energy-industry","tag-fidel-castro","tag-general-news","tag-immigrant-detention","tag-immigration","tag-iran-war","tag-latin-america","tag-marco-rubio","tag-mexico","tag-mexico-city","tag-mexico-government","tag-minnesota-ice-crackdown","tag-news","tag-oil-and-gas-industry","tag-palmira-tapia","tag-politics","tag-prisons","tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-washington-news","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}