US Implements New Measure Against Sending Remittances to Cuba

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez in Havana, Cuba. October 23, 2020. | Photo: Twitter/@BrunoRdgzP

The new measure is part of the ongoing actions taken by the Donald Trump administration against Cuba.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury released on Friday a new measure against sending remittances to Cuba, as part of the policies adopted by the Donald Trump administration against the island.

As reported by OFAC, the amendment will restrict any transaction with entities on the so-called Cuba Restricted List, a State Department list that includes more than 200 Cuban entities and sub-entities prohibited by the US government, including those which process and distribute remittances on the island, such as Fincimex, AIS, CIMEX, and others.

The final rule will be officially published in the Federal Register on October 27. The Donald Trump administration had previously limited the possible amount of shipments to only $1,000 per quarter (September 2019). Western Union suspended financial transfers to Cuba from anywhere globally except the United States (February 2020).

The current US administration noted that the new measure is intended to restrict access by such entities and sub-entities to funds obtained in connection with remittance-related activities, including in their role as intermediaries or their receipt of fees or commissions for processing remittance transactions.

For his part, the Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, declared that the new measure against remittances reaffirms that "there are no limits for a criminal government in imposing policies that limit contacts, communication and mutual aid between the families of both countries."

For the Cuban representative, the United States Government has intensified in an extreme and unprecedented way the blockade to the island, taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Far from alleviating the coercive measures in the context of the pandemic, the United States has proposed to provoke maximum punishment to the Cuban people. The new measure against remittances damages the population and confirms that the blockade is real," the diplomat said this Thursday through Twitter.

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