The suspension of remittance services following a restriction by Washington will affect countless families, the Cuban government said.
The Cuban government on Sunday (02/09/2025) criticized the White House for the measures that have led the Western Union company to suspend the sending of remittances to the island and assured that "this change of direction" by the United States will affect "countless families."
The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Minrex) responded in a statement to Western Union's decision to stop its services to the island due to "limitations by the US government," which it says make its financial activity impossible.
Since Donald Trump took office as president of the United States on January 20, Cuba has returned to the list of countries sponsoring terrorism and the company Orbit - responsible for processing remittances on the island - has been included in the list of restricted entities, with which US legislation prohibits having direct financial links.
"Countless Cuban families will be affected by the suspension of remittances sent through Western Union to Cuba as a result of the U.S. government's reversal of its irrational hardline policy toward the island," Minrex said.
RUBIO: ORBIT LINKED TO MILITARY BUSINESSES
The Foreign Ministry said that "the decision is not surprising," after the US 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 does not deny.
Western Union reactivated its money transfer service to Cuba in May 2024, after suspending it in 2020 due to the inclusion of Fincimex - which until then processed remittances on the island - on the list of restricted entities for being an entity of the GAESA business conglomerate, controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR).
In 2022, Orbit obtained 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.
In various investigative reports, independent media outlets had linked Orbit to GAESA, the largest state-owned conglomerate - and one without public auditing - a giant with interests in the tourism, real estate, logistics, energy, financial and telecommunications sectors.
Remittance transfers are a fundamental contribution for many Cubans in the serious economic and energy crisis that the island is suffering, although since 2020 a large part of this economic flow has begun to move through informal channels.
