The bank account that the Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos S.A. (CSMC) maintains at the Italian bank BPER has been inactive for transactions since the end of July, according to an investigation by journalist Annarella Grimal for Diario de Cuba, after consulting six sources familiar with the situation, including two members of the mission in Calabria.
According to their testimonies, some transfers have been returned while others remain frozen, and the CSMC cannot access the money deposited in the account.
So far, there is no official public information detailing the cause, extent, or duration of the blockade.
«It seems to me that, for the time being, there will be no more transfers. The account is blocked,» stated a doctor working in the province of Cosenza to Diario de Cuba. Another specialist who was able to complete the operation confirmed that «Cuba cannot access that money».
Another specialist stated that they were able to complete the banking operation, but that the Cuban side cannot use those funds.
Several members of the contingent who tried to send the corresponding amounts for the month received the transferred money back.
The interruption directly affects the system through which the CSMC receives a majority share of the income generated by Cuban doctors working in Italy.
According to Diario de Cuba, the Italian health entities directly deposit the remuneration into the personal accounts of each professional.
On the 24th of each month, the doctors receive their payroll and must send it to the Cuban authorities, who determine how much money they can keep and what amount must be transferred to the state enterprise's account.
The agreement between Italy and Cuba establishes a base salary of 4,700 euros, but according to Grimal's research, the CSMC allows the doctor to keep a maximum of 1,200 euros from that amount.
In the case of overtime, professionals receive 28.5% of the earnings and must transfer the remainder.
The operation must be carried out, according to the published information, within 24 hours to a CSMC account at the Italian bank BPER, after which the doctors must provide the receipt to the brigade coordinators. That is precisely the account that is now reportedly inactive.
Calculations previously made by Diario de Cuba based on dozens of payrolls and salary transfers indicate that the Commercializer retains between 54% and 72% of the earnings of professionals, a percentage that can be even higher in certain extraordinary payments.
Although the outlet could not determine the exact date when the restrictions on the account began, the collected testimonies place the onset of the issue between July 24 and July 29.
Doctors are ordered to keep the money
Due to the impossibility of completing the transfers, the head of the Cuban Medical Mission in Italy, Luis Enrique Pérez Ulloa, is said to have called an urgent meeting to inform the members of the brigade on how to proceed.
According to one of the sources cited by Diario de Cuba, Pérez Ulloa instructed the doctors to keep the money while a solution was being found.
He requested that they keep the money until a solution is found. They can't even withdraw money from the account, the source reported.
Four individuals consulted by the newspaper agreed that the current instruction is for professionals to keep in their personal accounts the amounts they would normally be required to remit to the CSMC.
It has also been mentioned as a possible alternative that doctors could transfer the money to Cuba during their vacations to later hand it over to a designated person responsible for receiving it.
However, one of the professionals who received that information could not confirm whether the eventual delivery would need to be made in cash.
The amount that the CSMC would cease to receive while the blockade persists could be considerable. Diario de Cuba estimated that in just one month it could approach half a million euros, referencing individual transfers close to 2,000 euros and the more than 200 doctors who still remain in the brigade.
Until Thursday, according to the report, the mission's leadership had not managed to raise the amounts corresponding to the salaries of its subordinates.
U.S. sanctions, among the possible explanations
The cause of the blockade has not been officially confirmed.
Two sources told Diario de Cuba that an investigation would be underway in Italy regarding the Cuban Medical Mission and its financial transfers, while a third directly linked the issue to the recent sanctions imposed by the United States against the CSMC.
However, the medium itself warns that there is currently no evidence to establish that the U.S. sanctions directly caused the account's suspension in BPER.
On July 23, 2026, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States (OFAC) included the Cuban Medical Services Marketing Company and the Central Unit of Medical Cooperation (UCCM) among the entities sanctioned under Executive Order 14404.
The sanctions block the assets and interests of those entities located in the United States or controlled by U.S. persons and restrict certain transactions with them.
The U.S. State Department stated that the CSMC and the UCCM are part of a system in which the Cuban government recruits healthcare professionals, controls their participation in international missions, and retains a substantial portion of the income generated by their work.
BPER also maintains correspondent relationships with the U.S. financial system. This mechanism can lead to certain operations of a foreign bank coming into contact with banks or financial controls in the United States, particularly in international transactions.
However, Diario de Cuba points out that this circumstance alone does not demonstrate that the sanctions from Washington are responsible for the blockade.
Foreign banks may also review or suspend relationships with sanctioned entities based on their own risk and compliance criteria.
The newspaper stated that it had contacted BPER to request an explanation regarding the incident, but by the time of publishing its information, it had not received a response from the bank.
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