Belize PM calls for talks to prevent Cuban humanitarian crisis

Last Updated on Monday, 2 February 2026, 21:36 by Writer

Prime Minister of Belize, John Briceño on Monday appealed for immediate talks on preventing a humanitarian crisis in the sister Caribbean nation of Cuba where oil supplies are running low.

“We call for urgent good faith talks to avert a humanitarian crisis which is likely to emerge in the Republic of Cuba if there is ever decreasing deliveries of petroleum products. A manufactured humanitarian disaster is neither moral nor is it legal,” he told a joint sitting of his country’s National Assembly in honour of Guyana’s President, Irfaan Ali’s State visit there. 

Oil supplies to Cuba have dwindled in recent weeks since the capture of Venezuela’s President, Nicolás Maduro and his wife by the United States military and taken to New York for trial for drugs trafficking and weapons possession.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has announced that her government would send humanitarian aid to Cuba this week, despite growing pressure from the United States to cut off oil supplies to the island.

“The government of Belize stands in full solidarity with the Cuban people,” Mr Briceño added.

Dr Ali, who belongs to the former socialist People’s Progressive Party (PPPC), did not say anything about communist-ruled Cuba in his address to the National Assembly.

While Guyana has over the years benefitted from thousands of scholarships and health care personnel, the country has in recent years tightened relations with the US and has moved to end the Cuban medical brigade programme, in response to a global warning by the US that government officials risk losing their visas because that agreement facilitates trafficking in persons.

Guyana has in recent years forged closer relations with the US in pushing back against Venezuela’s militarily aggressive claim to the Essequibo Region and the Atlantic waters abutting that 160,000 square kilometre land area.