Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum takes a firmer stance with Trump on migrant deaths and Cuba

[ad_1] MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican authorities on Tuesday protested the deaths of its residents in U.S. immigration custody as President Claudia Sheinbaum pushes again in opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump’s insurance policies on a number of fronts.

The progressive Mexican chief has walked a cautious line with Trump for greater than a yr, addressing provocations with a measured tone and assembly U.S. requests to crack down on prison cartels extra so than her predecessors, in an effort to offset threats of tariffs and U.S. army motion in opposition to the gangs.

However within the wake of mounting deaths of Mexican citizens in custody of immigration officials and the Trump administration’s choice to impose an power blockade on Cuba — a key Mexican ally — Sheinbaum has taken a tougher line.

“We’ve seen the president increase her tone,” mentioned Palmira Tapia, an analyst for Mexico’s Middle for Financial Analysis and Instructing. “There’s been a shift, and we’ve seen Sheinbaum be extra vocal than earlier than.”

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters after disembarking Air Pressure One, Sunday, April 12, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photograph/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

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Deaths in ICE custody Sheinbaum’s newest rebuke got here on Tuesday, a day after 49-year-old Mexican citizen Alejandro Cabrera Clemente died in a detention heart in Louisiana of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement company, or ICE, the fifteenth demise of a Mexican citizen in U.S. custody in little over a yr.

Mexico’s authorities rapidly known as the deaths “unacceptable” and the ICE detention facilities “incompatible with human rights requirements and the safety of life.”

Throughout a Tuesday press briefing Sheinbaum added that she requested investigations into the deaths of the 15 migrants, and instructed Mexican consulates to go to detention facilities every day.

She mentioned her authorities would increase the deaths in detention facilities to Inter-American Fee on Human Rights, and was contemplating interesting to the United Nations. Her authorities already mentioned it could help lawsuits within the U.S. filed by detainees over poor situations.

“We're going to defend Mexicans at each degree,” Sheinbaum mentioned, including that “there are numerous Mexicans whose solely crime is just not having papers.”

The strikes by Sheinbaum’s authorities come on high of mounting disapproval within the U.S. of Trump’s immigration enforcement. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say Trump has “gone too far” in sending federal immigration brokers into American cities, in accordance with a February AP-NORC poll .

“Rising dissatisfaction round ICE actions in the USA creates a extra snug platform for members of the Mexican authorities to boost considerations in regards to the destiny of Mexican residents,” mentioned Carin Zissis, vice chairman of content material technique for the Council of the Americas.

A ‘cool head’ Sheinbaum has maintained what she has described as a “cool head” to provocations by Trump, who has exerted extra strain on Latin America than any U.S. chief in many years. In only a few months, the Trump administration deposed Venezuela’s president, imposed an oil blockade on Cuba and threatened military intervention in opposition to Mexican cartels.

She has to stability sustaining a robust relationship with Trump whereas repeatedly stressing Mexico’s sovereignty to appease her personal base. Her measured responses resemble that of a lawyer relatively than the pinnacle of Mexico’s strongest populist political motion.

Her authorities has come down tougher on cartels than her predecessor and bolstered commerce relations forward of renegotiations of the United States-Mexico-Canada Settlement, or USMCA, free commerce settlement.

Whereas Trump has taken public jabs at Sheinbaum — at one level suggesting cartels have larger management over Mexico than her authorities — he’s additionally commonly made nods to their amicable relationship.

“She is known as a good individual, I like her loads,” he mentioned final month, continuing to mimic the Mexican chief in a excessive voice.

Individuals stroll a canine on a avenue in Havana, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photograph/Ramon Espinosa)

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Divide over Cuba However shifting geopolitics within the area, and the mounting deaths in ICE amenities, have additionally opened the door for Sheinbaum to take a firmer stance.

The principle level of competition between the 2 governments has been Cuba. Solidarity with the U.S. adversary has been a cornerstone of Mexico’s political ethos for the reason that Cuban revolution, which Fidel Castro, Ernesto “Che” Guevara and a gaggle of exiles famously deliberate whereas in Mexico Metropolis. It’s a selected sticking level together with her progressive Morena social gathering, whose founder ushered Sheinbaum into workplace.

The connection hit a hurdle in late January, when Trump introduced he would slap tariffs on any country that sends oil to Cuba . The transfer instantly impacted Mexico, which for years has shipped oil to Cuba.

Whereas Sheinbaum reluctantly paused oil shipments to Cuba , she has continued to problem the Trump administration’s push for regime change.

“Mexico has each proper to ship gas, whether or not for humanitarian or business causes,” Sheinbaum mentioned earlier this week.

She has described Trump’s power blockade of Cuba as “unjust” and accused the U.S. authorities of “suffocating” Cubans with sanctions. The Mexican chief has sent shipments of food and other aid , and even donated $1,000 of her personal cash to aid efforts in a symbolic gesture.

“It is a Rubicon problem for her,” mentioned Arturo Sarukhan, former Mexican ambassador to the U.S.

Even then, the strikes by the Mexican chief have raised eyebrows in Washington.

Sheinbaum just lately introduced that her nation would continue to have Cuban doctors work in the country , diverging from different nations in Central America and the Caribbean which have ended their applications within the face of U.S. strain.

It was met with veiled threats from the Trump administration, which pointed to visa restrictions imposed on Central American officers with ties to what U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio known as a “pressured labor scheme.”

The White Home supplied no touch upon Tuesday about Sheinbaum’s more durable stances, nor did it touch upon the rising variety of deaths of Mexican nationals in ICE custody.

Larger leverage Sheinbaum’s just lately bolder tone suggests a calculation that her administration can push again on some politically essential fronts so long as additionally they are making progress on strengthening commerce and assembly Trump administration requests on safety and migration, Zissis mentioned.

On the similar time, surging power costs because of the Iran war have made the U.S. extra depending on allies in Mexico, she and different analysts mentioned, prompting Washington to stroll again from any drastic strikes in opposition to Mexican cartels or Cuba, at the very least within the brief time period.

”We’re at a second the place, because of international occasions, we’re dealing with totally different financial uncertainties. That offers the U.S. and Mexico extra motive to work collectively,” she mentioned.

On the similar time, former Mexican ambassador Sarukhan mentioned that Sheinbaum should watch out to not put in danger upcoming USMCA renegotiations, for which her authorities has made painstaking efforts to construct a robust basis.

“What’s going to be fascinating going ahead is whether or not she will proceed to have her cake and eat it too,” Sarukhan mentioned.

——

Weissert reported from Washington D.C.

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