Due to restrictions ordered by Trump
The inclusion of the regime’s financial entity, Orbit, on the US blacklist prevents transactions with the Island.
By 14ymedio
HAVANA TIMES – The anticipated action by the Trump administration halting Western Union operations in Cuba is now in effect. The US company suspended remittance transfers to the Island as of Wednesday, February 5, citing increasing “restrictions from the government” of the United States, which have made it impossible to maintain the service.
“They haven’t told us if this will be permanent, but for now, we cannot process transactions with Cuba,” a Western Union employee in Miami told 14ymedio. This newspaper contacted three other offices in Florida, all of which confirmed the information. So far, the company has not issued an official statement.
The company’s website, which allowed remittances to be sent to the Island—received in Cuban pesos—displayed “problems” when attempting to complete a transaction, prompting users to “try again later.” Another employee explained to this newspaper that the issue was the recipient country: “They removed it,” she said. “Not even by coming to the office. Transfers have been suspended since February 5.”
A third person provided a supposedly technical explanation, claiming that the issue affected the entire company: the website was “blocked.” “We can’t log in with the password we have,” she said. Lastly, another employee—who assists customers in English and was less informed about the situation in Cuba—said she was unaware of the issue: “There’s nothing wrong with the system.”
The suspension of money transfers via Western Union had been expected since Trump won the elections. The final blow came when Secretary of State Marco Rubio reinstated and expanded the Cuba Restricted List on February 1, prohibiting transactions with companies controlled by the Cuban military or counterintelligence.
In his statement, Rubio said the blacklist was reinstated “to deny resources to the very branches of the Cuban regime that directly oppress and monitor the Cuban people while controlling large sectors of the country’s economy.” The list included Orbit, the remittance processing company whose ties to the Cuban Armed Forces have been documented by the press.
Orbit, which the Central Bank of Cuba authorized in 2022 to manage remittances from various platforms, processes Western Union transfers. The entity, which serves Financiera Cimex—controlled by the military conglomerate Gaesa—also handles money entering the country through platforms like VaCuba and Cubamax.
In May of last year, after resuming remittance transfers—suspended for two years—Western Union partnered with Katapulk, the online shopping platform owned by Cuban-American businessman Hugo Cancio. A proponent of engagement with the regime and one of its financial allies in Florida, Cancio announced “an additional channel for sending money,” “using Western Union’s rails.”
According to Western Union’s president for North America and Latin America, Rodrigo Garcia Estebarena, the company’s service is a “crucial connection between those living in the United States and their family members in Cuba.”
Many voices in the Cuban exile community, including Republican Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, believe remittances have done nothing but provide the regime with the hard currency it desperately needs to stay afloat amid one of the most severe crises the country has faced.
A report published last December by Cuba Siglo 21 states that Gaesa has lost more than 95% of the US-to-Cuba remittance market. According to the organization’s calculations—based on revenue through May 2024—the military conglomerate will collect $81.6 million in remittances last year, a mere 4.13% of the total revenue generated in 2023, which was $1.972 billion. This decline, the report argues, is due to a “silent financial citizen rebellion against its banking monopoly,” which in practice means that a large portion of the money sent from abroad to the Island is now funneled “through a network of more than 150 informal banks.”
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times.
