The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) regretted this Sunday the suspension of the sending of remittances to the island through Western Union, as a result of the measures taken by the Trump administration.
In a statement published on its website, the Cuban Foreign Ministry criticized the “irrational hardline policy” of the current U.S. government and assured that “this turn of the screw” by Washington will affect “countless families.”
The MINREX statement came to light in response to another from Western Union, according to which the company is forced to indefinitely suspend its money transfer service to Cuba “due to a change in the United States sanctions regulations.”
According to the note — which cites digital media, although without specifying which ones — the suspension of sending remittances by this means came into effect “with immediate effect.”
After Donald Trump returned to the presidency of the United States, Cuba was reinstated on the list of state sponsors of terrorism and the company Orbit — in charge of processing remittances on the island — was included on the list of restricted entities, with which U.S. legislation prohibits having direct financial ties.
“Countless Cuban families will be affected by the suspension of sending remittances through Western Union to Cuba as a result of the U.S. government’s change of course in its irrational hardline policy towards the island,” said the MINREX.
The Foreign Ministry assured that “the decision is not surprising” and “was coming,” after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently pointed out that Orbit “acts for or on behalf of the Cuban military forces,” something that the official statement neither confirms nor denies.
Western Union reactivated its money transfer service to Cuba in May 2024, after suspending it in 2020 due to the inclusion in the list of restricted entities of Fincimex — which until then processed remittances on the island — for being an entity of the GAESA business conglomerate, controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), says an EFE dispatch.
Orbit obtained in 2022 a license from the Central Bank of Cuba as a non-bank financial entity to manage and process international transfers to the island, as well as make payments from abroad for goods and services.
This entity had been established two years earlier, but was completely unknown to the public on the island, noted the Spanish press agency, which also points out that some independent media had linked Orbit with GAESA in reports on this conglomerate with a wide presence in the Cuban economy, in sectors such as tourism, real estate and finance, among others.
The sending of remittances is a fundamental contribution for a part of the Cuban population in the midst of the serious economic and energy crisis that the island is suffering, although for some years now a large part of this economic flow has begun to move more through informal channels.
Author
OnCuba Staff
