US plugs pipeline for Cuba remittances

The United States on Friday banned transactions with the main pipeline for remittances to Cuba, the latest effort to clamp down on the communist island since President Donald Trump's return.

Upon taking office on January 20, Trump swiftly rescinded a late-term decision by his predecessor Joe Biden to remove Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, part of a deal backed by the Vatican in which Havana freed political prisoners.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American and vociferous critic of the island's communist government, announced Friday that the United States was restoring a list of Cuban organizations under US financial sanctions which was to be abolished by Biden.

Rubio announced that all previous entities would return to the list as well as Orbit, S.A., a remittance-processing company.

"The State Department is reissuing the Cuba Restricted List to deny resources to the very branches of the Cuban regime that directly oppress and surveil the Cuban people while controlling large swaths of the country's economy," Rubio said in a statement.

Trump during his last stint in office had imposed sanctions on another remittance-handling company, Fincimex, pointing to its ties to the Cuban military.

Cuba replaced it with Orbit. The Miami Herald reported in December that an investigation found Orbit was also controlled by the Cuban military, despite assurances to the contrary.

Cuban-Americans send millions of dollars a year back to the island, providing a source of hard cash in a troubled economy.

Trump in his first term reversed former president Barack Obama's effort to end a half-century of US efforts to isolate Cuba, which Obama had considered a failure.