Havana/A resolution from the Central Bank of Cuba, published this Tuesday, authorizes the American company Cubamax Travel Inc. to operate as a transmitter of remittances to the Island. The company, based in Florida, will be able to “deliver cash in national currency or foreign currency to the beneficiaries,” according to the document.
Resolution 135/2025 empowers Cubamax to “develop money transmission activities to the national territory.” The entity may also “channel funds, through Cuban financial institutions, for deposit in accounts, debit cards, or loading prepaid cards of beneficiaries in Cuba.”
The option of receiving the dollars in cash is the great novelty of the new regulations, since the remittance companies that have operated in Cuba, such as Western Union, delivered the foreign currency to the Central Bank and gave pesos to the beneficiaries. This is what Cubamax also did until last February through the agreement signed with Orbit, a company controlled by the military conglomerate Gaesa. In a context marked by the chronic shortage of cash and the constant devaluation of the Cuban peso, this alternative introduces a novel variable since it allows families to preserve the real value of the money received and decide when to exchange it in case they need national currency.
The announcement also occurs a few weeks after an official floating rate was established between the dollar and the Cuban peso.
The announcement also occurs a few weeks after an official floating rate was established between the dollar and the Cuban peso. Therefore, the current Resolution indicates that it is part of a package of economic reforms where currencies are at the center of attention of the Cuban authorities.
For its part, Cubamax has been sending remittances to the Island for years, which, in most cases, are delivered in foreign currency, but it does so through home delivery mechanisms where private parties participate and which are marked by a certain informal nature. Even Cubamax employees in Miami are prohibited from claiming that they are sending dollars to the island when a customer asks them on the phone, as confirmed to 14ymedio a worker at one of its branches.
Although the document published in the Official Gazette does not detail the way in which these deliveries in foreign currency will be carried out, whether through offices in the national territory or with home delivery, it is a fact that the Government will have information about the senders and beneficiaries, unlike what has happened until now with informal circuits.
Cubamax is not a new actor in the economic relationship between the diaspora and Cuba. For years it has been operating in South Florida offering plane tickets, parcels and transfers, and has a consolidated clientele among Cuban emigrants. The novelty now is that the Central Bank authorizes this company to channel remittances without going through an intermediary like Orbit.
Last April, Cubamax suspended without prior notice nor a clear explanation for sending remittances to Cuba through the intermediation of Orbit, which delivered pesos to the beneficiaries. The interruption of service took by surprise regular customers who went to its offices in Miami and those who called from the Island to arrange money transfers. Employees consulted by 14ymedio They noted that the person in charge of delivering the money in Cuba “for some reason can no longer do so” and that the agency is looking for a new supplier, although they repeatedly insisted that this was not due to Washington sanctions or problems with the US government, but rather to the inability of the existing Cuban partner to continue the distribution of the cash. 
In 2024, the city of Hialeah, one of the main enclaves of the Cuban-American community in South Florida, became the scene of a controversy surrounding Cubamax.
In 2024, the city of Hialeah, one of the main enclaves of the Cuban-American community in South Florida, became the scene of a controversy surrounding Cubamax. The debate arose when the City Council unanimously approved resolutions to prevent businesses with ties to the Cuban Government from receiving municipal concessions, contracts or privileges, a measure that, although it did not mention the company by name, was directly motivated by its attempt to expand operations and advertising in the city.
During Council sessionsseveral local officials expressed concern about what they considered close relations between Cubamax and Cuban state entities, pointing to exchanges with senior officials and their presence at official events on the Island. Mayor Esteban Bovo defended the decision, arguing that, although residents have the right to help their families in Cuba, the city should not facilitate or support businesses that could benefit the Havana regime, a position that connected with the feelings of a large part of the local electorate.
The recently published Cuban regulatory framework reveals the logic that currently guides the State’s economic policy: creating the conditions to recover control of the flow of foreign currency that it lost, to a large extent, with the departure of Western Union from the Island. The previous experience with the American company, suspended for political and regulatory reasons, weighs as a precedent. The Government now seems to be betting on more flexible intermediaries, but always under the premise that remittances should not circulate outside its radar.
The measure can expand the options for receiving money from the United States and reduce, at least partially, dependence on informal channels. The need for foreign currency in the midst of a prolonged crisis, with a devalued Cuban peso, undersupplied markets and a population increasingly dependent on money coming from abroad has, without a doubt, forced this step.
