Western union suspends money shipments to Cuba

The Western Union company indefinitely suspended the sending of money from the United States to Cuba after the sanctions imposed by the administration of Donald Trump to the state orbit SA, responsible for processing the remittances to the island.

«Due to a change in the US sanctions regulations, Western Union is forced to suspend its money transfer service between the US and Cub Martí News.

The company clarified that so far there is no schedule for a possible resumption of remittance shipments to the island.

Wester Union said that although he understood that his services «are fundamental to meet the daily needs of so many people living in Cuba», as a company are «forced to comply with the laws and regulations established in the countries in which we operate.»

The United States Department published Thursday the Updated list with the institutions, companies and businesses of the Cuban regime with which direct financial transactions are prohibited. Among them is Orbit S.

A investigation of the Miami Herald He found that this company – presented by the island’s government as an independent and civil company – operates as a Cimex appendix, belonging to the Gaesa military conglomerate.

Cimex internal documents analyzed by the Herald They revealed that the company supervises Orbit’s operations, analyzes its performance and prepares reports on money transfers made through Western Union and Miami -based shipping agencies, such as Vacuba and Cubamax.

Fincimex, the company that was previously in charge of remittances, was sanctioned during the first administration of Donald Trump.

Orbit was the company in charge of managing a significant portion of Western Union’s remittances towards Cuba since March 2023.

In May 2024 Western Union signed an agreement with Katapulk that allowed customers to send money to Cuba through the website or the company’s mobile application, belonging to the Cuban American businessman Hugo Cancio.

Remittances constitute an important source of income in dollars for Gaesa, which uses these funds for the construction of hotels and other projects in the middle of one of the worst crises that the country has gone through in decades.

Last week the Cuban authorities announced The opening of half a hundred stores in dollars In several provinces of the country under a business network that includes several mixed companies, with the aim of collecting currencies.

Havana recently announced a «government program», which includes a process that the regime calls «partial dollarization» of the economy.