Online portal for Cuban Americans sending aid to relatives closes

com, a website used by Cuban Americans to send goods to relatives in Cuba, ceased operations after U.S. sanctions targeted its connection to a military-run conglomerate. The site displayed a message stating that services would end due to circumstances beyond its control.

All approved and pending orders will be shipped, and the support team will remain available for questions, the message said.

com had served as a primary online portal for sending support to the island. The operation was directly connected to the Grupo de Administracion Empresarial, or GAESA, a military-run conglomerate that controls much of Cuba’s economy. Emilio Morales, president at the Miami-based consulting firm Havana Consulting Group, told the Associated Press that the portal and similar sites sell and deliver products stored in GAESA warehouses, directly contributing to the group’s revenue.

Sanctions and economic context Christopher Hernandez-Roy, acting director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies Americas Program, described GAESA earlier this month as a monolithic economic conglomerate controlled by the Cuban armed forces.

Open-source intelligence suggests it controls between 40% and 70% of the Cuban economy. Hernandez-Roy said GAESA conducts real business, but the revenue benefits a certain cadre of the military and does not enter government coffers or the state budget.

The shutdown follows U.S. sanctions against the island’s economic nerve center and comes amid an increasing exodus of businesses from Cuba.