[News] US Remittances to Cuba Suspended; the Hard Side of an Irrational Policy

[Anti-Imperialist News]

resumen-english.org
<https://resumen-english.org/2025/02/us-remittances-to-cuba-suspended-the-hard-side-of-an-irrational-policy/>
US Remittances to Cuba Suspended; the Hard Side of an Irrational Policy
------------------------------

February 10, 2025

photo: Ismael Francisco

A Western Union statement, cited in digital media, has revealed that, “due
to a change in U.S. sanctions regulations,” the financial services company
is forced to indefinitely suspend its money transfer service to Cuba, “this
will go into affect immediately.”

The decision is not surprising, it was coming, because Orbit SA, in charge
of processing remittances, was included in Cuba’s List of Restricted
Entities with the return of Republican Donald Trump to the White House.

On January 20, when he took office, Trump overturned the last-minute
measures of his predecessor Joe Biden, and reinstated, among others, that
list.

This was followed by statements by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on
January 31 announced that in addition to reinstating the entities that were
“on the list until the last week of the previous administration, we are
adding Orbit, S.A.,” which, according to him, “acts for or on behalf of the
Cuban military forces.”

On Wednesday, the State Department published the update to the list and, in
effect, Orbit SA was added to the existing ones, according to the text that
can be read on the Federal Register page.

The warning is that direct financial transactions in general are prohibited
for the entities included in accordance with the Regulations for the
Control of Cuban Assets.

Rubio -who during his time as a senator was one of the main architects of
the severe policy against Cuba in the United States Congress- recalled that
on his first day, Trump returned Cuba to the list of State Sponsors of
Terrorism and reactivated Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, also known as
the Liberty Act.

Western Union resumed its money transfer service to Cuba in May of last
year after stopping it in 2020, during Trump’s first administration
(2017-2021).

At that time, the Fincimex Cuban financial institution was sanctioned as
part of the arbitrary measures that, as now, intensify the blockade, thus
making it impossible for residents on this side of the strait to
financially help their relatives on the island.

Two years later, in 2022, the service was restored with limitations and was
again cut off due to technical problems. Cuba’s Restricted Entities List
was rescinded on January 16, following the issuance of National Security
Memorandum 29 (NSM-29) on the 14th of the same month. On the 20th, Trump
issued an Executive Order that invalidated NSM-29.

In his first administration, Trump imposed at least 243 restrictive
measures that reinforced the economic, commercial and financial blockade
imposed on the Cuban people more than six decades ago.

The Republican is returning to his steps of maximum pressure. Four years
ago, eight days after leaving the executive mansion, Trump included Cuba in
the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, which it had not been part of
since 2015, a position that Biden maintained until the very end of his term.

Source: Prensa Latina
<https://www.plenglish.com/news/2025/02/09/us-remittances-to-cuba-suspended-hard-side-of-irrational-policy/>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20250212/9d8f052a/attachment.htm>