Uruguay to send 20 tons of powdered milk to Cuba via Mexico

If Uruguay is sending powdered milk to Cuba through Mexico, the more urgent story is the one behind the cargo: a basic food item now needs an international relay just to reach the island. The planned shipment, about 20 tons of powdered milk, was being coordinated with Mexico as Cuba’s shortages deepened under crushing power cuts, fuel scarcity and a ration system under strain.

The milk was set to leave from Mexico in the coming weeks, folding Uruguay into a broader humanitarian channel that has already moved more than 3,125 tons of food, medicine, solar panels and fuel to Cuba in four shipments since February 2026. Mexico’s Navy alone delivered more than 814 tons of humanitarian supplies on February 12, 2026, a scale that shows how much outside relief has begun to do the work that ordinary state logistics can no longer reliably cover.

That aid answers one part of Cuba’s emergency, but only one part. The United Nations Human Rights Office said Cuba was already enduring severe energy shortages, with blackouts lasting up to 20 hours in many areas, while fuel shortages disrupted hospitals, water systems, food production and distribution. The office also said the island’s fuel crisis was undermining the rationing system and the regulated basic food basket, hitting children, older people and residents of maternity homes and nursing homes hardest.

The new Uruguayan shipment came through a Mexican route that has become central to humanitarian deliveries headed for Cuba. Claudia Sheinbaum’s government has played a key logistical role, and reports said coordination with her administration helped clear initial obstacles to the Uruguayan case. Uruguayan Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin had already discussed the possibility of aid to Cuba in February 2026, before the milk shipment was organized.

On the ground, solidarity groups have been moving alongside governments. The Nuestra América Convoy sent aid from Isla Mujeres and Progreso, Yucatán, with volunteer loads that included rice, beans, baby formula, feminine pads, shampoo, baby wipes, diapers, batteries, flour, oats and other staples. That stream of supplies has kept arriving while Cuba’s crisis has widened into a prolonged economic and humanitarian emergency, one made harsher by decades of embargo and recent U.S. restrictions on oil shipments.

For Cuba, 20 tons of powdered milk will help shore up diets, especially for children and households stretched by the ration book. It will not restore the grid, refill fuel depots or fix the hospitals and water systems that have been left vulnerable. That gap is why the aid matters and why it also speaks volumes: outside relief is becoming a bridge over a state capacity crisis that Cubans are still forced to live through every day.