Western Union closes in Cuba, families lose their biggest remittance route since exile

The closure from Monday of all Western Union branches in Cuba due to the latest US sanctions restricts the main legal channel for sending funds to the island and threatens by preventing its citizens from surviving in the midst of a severe economic crisis.

“Now I really don’t know how we’re going to do it,” Ainhoa, a 21-year-old Cuban, told Efe after picking up her uncle’s last cash shipment in Miami from a Western Union office in Havana.

As of Monday, the American company will close its 407 branches in Cuba after the Donald Trump administration has sanctioned its counterpart, the Cuban financial company Fincimex, for belonging to a conglomerate under the control of the armed forces.

Some branches in Havana have already woken up closed on Monday, while others remained open until closing indefinitely in the late afternoon.

Ainhoa ​​combines her university studies with a full-time job in the public sector, this earns you the equivalent of $ 35 per month, to which is added an additional $ 11 from his mother’s retirement pension. “My uncles in the United States have helped us so far; they sent us $ 50 or $ 100 from the West and with that we got rid of a lot, ”he says.

For her part, Raquel Almira, 65, has entrusted her survival to the money she received via Western Union from her daughter, sister and niece in New York and New Jersey. “How am I going to live? I am retired, they pay me 300 pesos per month (12 dollars). That is not enough for nothing,” she protested.

She, like other Cubans, began to explore other ways to receive remittances from the United States, usually through agencies that operate across third countries and charge higher commissions.

In Cuba there are about 11.1 million inhabitants, while 1.6 million Cubans live in exile. The latter sent their relatives back to the island more than a billion dollars in 2019, according to data from the United States-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, a private organization based in New York.

Cubans in the United States make over 240,000 individual transfers per month to Cuba across American society.

In an economy like Cuba, characterized by endemic shortages made worse today by the coronavirus pandemic, Remittances are a fundamental pillar for the livelihood of a large part of the citizens, including those who do not receive a single dollar from abroad.

This is the case of Rafael, a 54-year-old mason: “I don’t have a family there but it affects me, because when I do a job, they pay me with remittances, but s ‘they disappear, they leave me without income, because unfortunately they live off transfers, “explains Efe.

Traditionally, the main channel for sending money to Cuba has been informal, through travelers who have brought foreign currency in cash, but with the extended border closures since March due to the coronavirus pandemic, Western Union is become the main alternative.

Thus, it is expected that the recent reopening of the airports (the one in Havana operates regular flights from Sunday 15) will serve to resume the flow of American tickets to Cuba, although air traffic with the northern country American is significantly lower than in the past. before the pandemic.

The Trump administration’s order bans all U.S. money transfer companies from operating in Cuba, although it offers them the possibility of resuming their activity: obtaining a counterpart on the island unrelated to the armed forces, which monopolize a large part of the economic power of the country.

The Cuban government considers the US proposal to be part of its policy of “lying, manipulation, coercion and use of force,” according to an editorial published Monday in state media Cubadebate, in which it explains that it is not the case. It is possible to establish a payment network outside of Fincimex, which has been working with Western Union since 1998.

The Donald Trump administration has canceled its rapprochement with Havana in the past four years promoted by the previous president, Barack Obama, and tightens the financial embargo in force for six decades in view of the already deteriorating economy of the island.

The sanctions of the past two years have targeted areas strategic for state coffers such as tourism, remittances or medical missions and have included a ban on cruises and a ban on flights from the United States to all airports. Cubans except Havana.

Source: EFE Agency