LatinNews Daily - 05 October 2020

Cuba: On 28 and 30 September the US Department of State announced further economic sanctions against Cuba. The US authorities added American International Services (AIS), a subsidiary of Cuban financial services firm Fincimex, to the Cuba Restricted List on 28 September. The Department of State reported that AIS was being manipulated and exploited by the Cuban military. Military-owned Fincimex is the main local partner of US money transfer firm Western Union, and is the primary handler of remittances sent to Cuba from abroad. According to a US Department of State press release, the Cuban military uses AIS, Fincimex, and other entities to “charge fees and manipulate the remittance and foreign currency market”. Its profits are said to be used for “furthering repression” of Cubans, and “funding Cuba’s meddling in Venezuela”. Meanwhile on 30 September, Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja was added to the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list of specially designated nationals and blocked persons. Rodríguez is the son-in-law of the late former Cuban leader Fidel Castro (1959-2008), and the head of military-owned mega conglomerate Grupo de Administración Empresarial (Gaesa). The measures add to a string of recent US restrictions on Cuba, including the prohibition on US travellers staying at properties owned by the Cuban government, and further restrictions on imports of Cuban cigars and rum. The sanctions have been slammed by the Cuban government and critics as an electoral stunt by US President Donald Trump, to try to win over Cuban-American votes ahead of the US presidential election on 3 November.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 855 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

• Subscribe
• Sign up for a one-time, 14-day trial