22OCT

Washington takes the pressure to Panama

1 min read

17:12UTC

The US Ambassador to Panama warned Panamanian banks and firms on 13 July over Cuban sanctions evasion, naming Fincimex and BFI as examples of the risk.

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Key takeaway

Washington took its Cuba sanctions warning directly to Panama's banks and their compliance desks.

Kevin Marino Cabrera, the US Ambassador to Panama, and State Deputy Assistant Secretary Samuel Parker warned Panamanian banks and firms on Monday 13 July about the sanctions risk of facilitating Cuban evasion, citing Fincimex, Cuba's remittance processor, and Banco Financiero Internacional (BFI) as examples⁠¹.

Panama's banking sector and the Colón Free Zone have long provided a re-export and settlement channel for Cuban trade that cannot clear through US-linked correspondent banks. OFAC had designated the bank itself on 23 June. Naming it again to a room of Panamanian bankers does something the designation alone cannot: it puts the compliance officers of institutions outside US jurisdiction on notice that the relationship now carries a documented risk. Banks de-risk on the strength of that notice long before any enforcement action, which is how a designation propagates into markets Washington cannot reach directly.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Kevin Marino Cabrera, the US ambassador to Panama, and Samuel Parker, a State Department deputy assistant secretary, met Panamanian banks and firms on 13 July to warn them against "sanctions evasion" tied to Cuba. This is not a new sanction; it is a warning to third-country banks that doing business with entities already on the US sanctions list carries risk even if the bank itself is Panamanian, not American. The entities they cited as examples, Fincimex, Cubita coffee, BFI and RAFIN, were all sanctioned months or years earlier. The meeting's purpose was to make sure Panama's financial sector understood the exposure, not to announce anything new.

What could happen next?

Consequence
Panamanian banks and firms doing any business with the named entities now have direct, explicit US notice of sanctions-evasion risk, raising the likelihood of de-risking (banks simply refusing Cuba-linked business to avoid exposure).

Sources:CiberCuba

Mentions:Fincimex →Banco Financiero Internacional →Cuba →Washington →OFAC →Panama →RAFIN S.A. →West of England P&I Club →

First Reported In

Update #11 · Cuba blames the blockade for a 64% gas rise

CiberCuba· 17 Jul 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

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This Event

Washington takes the pressure to Panama

Warning third-country bankers face to face is how a US designation reaches institutions that US jurisdiction cannot bind.

Different Perspectives

UN General Assembly

The Assembly passed last year's resolution against the US embargo by 165 votes to 7, with 12 abstentions, and votes again on 28 October. That count is the baseline against which Havana's lobbying claims and Washington's pressure will be measured.

Mexican Navy (Secretaría de Marina)

A Mexican Navy team inspected Grace at Progreso and found fuel in its ballast tanks, according to the US Coast Guard. The account of Mexico's role comes from Washington; the Mexican government's own position on the stop is not on record in the sources reviewed.

Pedro Monreal, independent Cuban economist

Monreal says the gazette contains no rule for the exchange-house licence ADT 64 received, so nobody knows how a second firm could apply. He says a representative rate would need at least ten houses in five provinces, Havana included.

Prisoners Defenders and OCDH (Madrid-based exile monitors)

Prisoners Defenders counted a record 1,351 political prisoners at the end of September, and OCDH logged at least 344 repressive actions that month. OCDH asked the European Union on 11 September to investigate possible trafficking in Cuba's medical brigade in Italy.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier

Uthmeier announced a no-bond state warrant for Raúl Castro on 19 October over the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown, after reopening the state investigation last year. The four men killed flew for a Miami exile group, and the warrant restricts Castro's travel rather than reaching him in Cuba.

Cuban government (Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla)

Rodríguez said on 21 October that Washington is pressing governments to abstain or leave the hall in the 28 October UN vote and called Florida's Raúl Castro warrant worthless. Havana is presenting its October oil and trade rules as openings and the US measures as an energy blockade.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.