US extends restrictive policies on remittances to Cuba

US extends restrictive policies on remittances to Cuba
Fecha de publicación: 
6 November 2021
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The United States has declared that its restrictive policies on banning remittances to Cuba will remain even longer, thereby hampering the right of Cuban families to help their loved ones.

A White House high-ranking official told local media that the President Joe Biden administration continues to review how to make sure the cash sent to Cuba does not favor the Cuban government, Reuters news agency reported.

According to Reuters, US goal is to guarantee that the cash sending go directly to the Cuban people, although it did not mention how the economic blockade has been stifling the Cuban people for over six decades, even amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

President Joe Biden asked the Treasury and State Departments in July to suggest different options for family remittances to reach directly to beneficiaries, arguing that Cuban government takes between 20 and 40% of each remittance.

On August, the Cuban Commercial Company Fincimex Manager Yamil Hernández denied that the Cuban government or even the Army got part of the amount remitted from the United States.

Such a theory, repeated by US politicians, put an end to the Western Union company’s relations with the Cuban financial institutions in charge of processing family remittances, specifically Fincimex, in October 2020.

This measure – imposed by former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) and kept unchanged by present US administration – unilaterally closed the flow through regular and institutional channels, based on totally unfounded pretexts, Hernández said.

President Joe Biden vowed -during his election campaign- to change such a hostile policy; however, the 243 coercive measures imposed by Donald Trump to tighten the US blockade remain unchanged.

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