This is the account where the specialists transfer most of their salary once they receive it from Italian entities.
14ymedio, Madrid, August 28, 2026 – The account of the Cuban Medical Services Commercialization Company (CSMC) at the Italian bank BPER has been blocked since the end of July, and everything seems to indicate that this was a decision by the institution itself to avoid exposure to possible U.S. sanctions. This was reported by Diario de Cuba in an article signed by Annarella Grimal and published this Thursday, based on several knowledgeable sources, including two members of the brigade in Calabria.
These sources, who requested anonymity for fear of losing their jobs, told the independent newspaper that transfers made to CSMC by the doctors have been returned and that the Commercialization Company “cannot access the deposited money” or carry out transactions from the end of July through the account the state organization holds at Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna (BPER).
According to Diario de Cuba, Calabrian healthcare entities deposit the doctors’ pay directly into their personal accounts on the 24th of each month. In a mechanism common to other missions, the specialists submit their pay statements to the mission’s officials, who calculate how much they may keep, and then, “voluntarily,” as one of the healthcare workers admitted in an interview with Associated Press last July, they hand over most of the money to the Commercialization Company.
“Of what is received for overtime, only 28.5% is theirs,” the independent newspaper asserts
In the case of Calabria, according to Diario de Cuba, the base salary stipulated by the Italy-Cuba Agreement is 4,700 euros, of which CSMC allows the healthcare worker to keep a maximum of 1,200 euros. “Of what is received for overtime, only 28.5% is theirs,” the independent newspaper asserts. The remainder must be transferred “within 24 hours” to the account at BPER that is now frozen.
As Diario de Cuba concludes, the measure “interrupts the final stage of the extraction scheme through which the Cuban state company collects most of the doctors’ salaries in Italy,” something for which these brigades have been identified by the U.S. and several international organizations as forced labor.
Faced with this setback, which Diario de Cuba dates to between July 24 and 28, the head of the Cuban Medical Mission in Italy, Luis Enrique Pérez Ulloa, “called an urgent meeting” and issued instructions on what to do next. According to one source, he “asked them to hold on to the money until a solution was found,” while another source said they were also advised to “take the money to Cuba during their vacations and hand it over there to a person assigned to collect it.”
In Italy, meanwhile, the same outlet reports, “they are investigating everything that is happening with the Cuban mission and the money transfers.” It is more than likely that the account freeze is related to the most recent U.S. sanctions against entities directly connected to the export of Cuban doctors, imposed on July 23.
At that time, not only was the Cuban Medical Services Commercialization Company placed on the blacklist, but Health Minister José Ángel Portal Miranda and the director of the Central Unit for Medical Cooperation, Gretza Sánchez Padrón were also. These sanctions, which follow the path set by the executive order signed by President Donald Trump on May 1, do not apply only to the entities and individuals named, but also to anyone who conducts transactions with them, who may likewise face sanctions.
That is why the Italian bank has decided, as a precaution, to freeze the CSMC account.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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