from Prensa Latina, translated and published by Resumen English, February 10, 2025
Economic brutality against Cuba. It is incomprehensible except in so far as some will destroy whatever they cannot own. [jb[
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 Cuba’s Restricted Entities List was rescinded on January 16, following the issuance of National Security Memorandum 29 (NSM-29) on the 14th of the same month.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.