The possibility of establishing an air bridge to Cuba and the quest to mine lithium in Mexico were among the topics President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about at her Friday morning press conference.
She also offered a limited response to skepticism about the accuracy of the federal government’s homicide numbers, which some analysts say are being manipulated by state Attorney General’s Offices.
Here is a recap of the president’s Feb. 13 mañanera.
Mexico could establish an air bridge to Cuba
A day after two Mexican Navy vessels carrying more than 800 tonnes of humanitarian aid arrived in Cuba, a reporter asked the president whether Mexico could establish a “humanitarian aid air bridge” to transport to Cuba provisions brought to Mexico by other countries around the world.
“If Cuba requests it, then those conditions would exist, of course,” Sheinbaum responded.
“Flights to Cuba aren’t closed,” she added.
Mexico sends 800 tonnes of aid to Cuba, with more on the way
After the reporter countered that there is no jet fuel in Cuba, Sheinbaum highlighted that planes can refuel in Mexico.
“In fact, Mexican flights to Cuba, of Mexican airlines, aren’t closed because there is jet fuel here and [Mexico] is very close,” she said.
Sheinbaum has pledged to send more humanitarian aid to Cuba, but her government has suspended shipments of oil to the Caribbean island nation due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on imports from countries that supply it with oil.
Cuba is currently facing a range of problems including fuel and food shortages, and frequent blackouts.
On Thursday, Cuba President Miguel Díaz-Canel posted a video to social media of the humanitarian aid-carrying Mexican Navy vessels arriving in Havana.
“#ThankYouMexico. Thank you, dear @Claudiashein,” he wrote on X.
#GraciasMéxico. Gracias, querida @Claudiashein. Las ayudas humanitarias de nuestros hermanos mexicanos valen no sólo como carga material. En ellas viajan la solidaridad, la amistad y la ejemplar historia de soberanía y respeto al derecho ajeno que distinguen a #México. pic.twitter.com/MsuiRjdhI4
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) February 13, 2026
“The humanitarian aid from our Mexican brothers and sisters is not only valuable as material goods,” Díaz-Canel wrote, adding that the goods also represent “solidarity, friendship and the exemplary history of sovereignty and respect for the rights of others that distinguish #Mexico.”
Sheinbaum: ‘We don’t produce lithium in Mexico, but there are reserves’
Four years after the nationalization of lithium in Mexico and the creation of a state-owned lithium company, Sheinbaum acknowledged that the much-coveted alkali metal isn’t being produced here.
“At this time, we don’t produce lithium in Mexico, but there are reserves of lithium,” she said.
Sheinbaum reiterated that Mexico’s reserves of lithium — a metal used in a range of batteries, including those that power electric vehicles — are in clay deposits that are technically difficult and expensive to mine.
“The technology to do it already exists. The issue is that it’s very expensive,” she said.
“So we need to reduce the costs in order to produce lithium … that is in clay soil,” Sheinbaum said.
“On the other hand, work is being done on the brines from oil wells, where there is also lithium,” she said.
Sheinbaum noted that the Mexican Petroleum Institute is collaborating with the state-owned lithium company, Litio MX, on efforts aimed at the commencement of lithium mining in Mexico.
Mexico’s largest lithium deposits are in Sonora, where the federal government established a lithium mining reserve in 2023. There are smaller deposits in other states including Baja California, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas.
‘Who are they?’ asks Sheinbaum about security-focused NGO that suggested Mexico shouldn’t host World Cup
A reporter highlighted that the Citizens Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice (CCSPJP), a Mexican NGO, held at a press conference this week at which its president said that it wasn’t a good time for Mexico to host the FIFA World Cup due to insecurity.
“Who said that?” Sheinbaum asked, prompting a reporter to repeat the name of the NGO.
“And who are they?” Sheinbaum asked, to which the reporter replied that it is a “citizens’ council that provides security statistics.”
The press conference at which council president José Antonio Ortega spoke came after the CCSPJP published its 2025 rankings of the world’s “50 most violent cities.”
Seventeen Mexican cities, including Culiacán, Manzanillo, Colima, Acapulco and Irapuato, were included on the list, which ranked cities according to their per capita homicide rates.
In addition to suggesting that Mexico shouldn’t be a host of this year’s World Cup, Ortega questioned the accuracy of the federal government’s homicide numbers, as other security experts have done.
On Friday morning, Sheinbaum noted that preliminary homicide data comes from the states. Those numbers, she said, are subsequently validated or corrected by the national statistics agency INEGI via a review of death certificates.
Three days after federal security officials reported that homicide numbers in January 2026 were 42% lower than the month before Sheinbaum took office (September 2024), the president asserted that the stated decline is “not an invention.”
“It’s data from the Attorney General’s Offices, all the country’s Attorney General’s Offices,” she said.
Sheinbaum didn’t respond to assertions that state Attorney General’s Offices are not accurately reporting homicides because they are incorrectly classifying some murders as less serious crimes. Nor did she respond to claims that the decline in homicides during her presidency is related to an increase in disappearances.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
