Western Union suspends services in Cuba due to technical problems in the banking system

Western Union would have temporarily stopped its shipping servicesremittances to Cuba due to technical problems in the island's banking system.

Angel, a customer service representative for the Denver, Colorado-based company, confirmed toMartí News that the company was working to resolve the problems.

"What we understand is that apparently there is some technical problem with the banks in Cuba and we are working so that people can continue making their payments," the employee stated, without providing specific details about the nature of the reported difficulties.

Until now, theCentral Bank of Cuba (BCC) has not issued any official information in this regard. However, this week, Banco Metropolitano reported through its account on the social network X about "affects to services in branches and electronic payment channels." Hours later, the bank announced that the affected services had already been restored.

The company Orbit S.A., which operates as a non-banking financial institution with the capacity to manage transfers from abroad, has not reported on the suspension of remittance services,one of the main sources of foreign exchange income for the Cuban regime, calculated by specialists at an amount greater than 50 billion dollars in cash in the last 30 years.

NotablyOrbit S.A. obtained a license from the Central Bank of Cuba in 2022 to operate as a non-banking financial institution, replacingFincimex, sanctioned in 2020 by the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)due to its connection with the military conglomerate GAESA; a measure that led toclosure of Western Union operations on the Island.

In the last hours, the Havana regime reported on aalleged computer attack on the CIMEX corporation, coming from abroad, which would have affected the cybersecurity of transactions at gas stations.

"The decision is due to a cybersecurity attack on the CIMEX marketing system. The Vice Minister of Economy and Planning reported just minutes ago that it was caused by a virus coming from abroad," the official journalist explained.Lazaro Manuel Alonso.

The news ruined the State's plans to update the price of fuel and its marketing in foreign currency. It is unknown if the aforementioned effects on the banking system, which has caused the suspension of remittances through Western Union, are related to the alleged computer attack.

At the beginning of January, the Minister of Finance and Prices,Vladimir Regueiro Ale, said on the television program Mesa Redonda thatthe price of gasoline in Cuba would increase by more than 500%, one of the measures included in the ruler's great economic regime packageMiguel Diaz-Canel, with which they proposed to equate fuel prices to the official exchange rate (approximately 120 pesos to one dollar), adopted in thefailed “economic and monetary ordering”.

After the announcement of an indefinite pause in the entry into force of the measure, together with the stoppage of the increase in transportation prices, the Cuban regime proceeded todismissal of the Minister of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil Fernández, Withthat of the Food Industry, Manuel Sobrino Martínez, and that of the Minister of Science, Technology and Environment of Cuba (CITMA),Elba Rosa Pérez Montoya. Other “cadres” of the so-called “continuity” were also dismissed in the last few hours.