The Mexican state oil company Pemex reported on Tuesday that company executives met with the Cuban ambassador to the country to coordinate support for the reconstruction of an oil facility that caught fire earlier this month on the Caribbean island.
The Mexican giant, which is struggling with a heavy debt, said on its Twitter account that among the agreements it was established to hold technical meetings with the oil company's specialists "to exchange opinions with those responsible for the reconstruction project in #Cuba." , without giving further details.
At the beginning of the month, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent at least 85 soldiers and specialists from Pemex to Cuba to help put out the fire that occurred in fuel tanks at the supertanker port of Matanzas.
López Obrador has sought to strengthen ties with Cuba and in June decided not to attend the Summit of the Americas in the United States in protest that the host country excluded Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from the guest list.
Meanwhile, Cuba said last Friday that it requested technical assistance from the United States to clean up after the huge fire, which left 16 firefighters dead, generated after lightning struck an oil storage tank.
Washington regards Cuba's communist government as an enemy and has maintained a harsh sanctions regime since shortly after former leader Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.
