Decision to expel Cuban diplomats ‘unfounded and unacceptable’: FM

HAVANA — Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said that the US decision to expel 15 diplomats from the island’s mission in Washington is “unfounded and unacceptable”.

At a news conference, Rodriguez said that the measure announced by the US government, without conclusive investigative results or evidence on the incidents affecting its officials in Cuba, is “arbitrary and directed to political objectives.”

The US decision is a “political reprisal”, using the pretext that the Cuban government did not take all the appropriate measures to prevent the alleged incidents suffered since November 2016 by US officials on the island, he said.

The Trump administration expelled 15 diplomats from the Cuban embassy in Washington on Tuesday, as a response to unexplained illnesses afflicting 22 US staff from its embassy in Havana.

Last week, the US government decided to reduce its personnel staff in Havana to a minimum group of 27 people, to carry out possible emergency services for US citizens on the Caribbean island.

The decision of the US State Department was meant to compel Cuba to operate its embassy in Washington under the same emergency conditions as the United States operated its in Havana.

So far, 22 US citizens working at the embassy in Havana have been confirmed to be suffering from physical debilitations.

The foreign minister regretted that the measure has been “rushed”, since the investigation has not been concluded and so far, neither Cuban nor US experts have found evidence to indicate who is responsible for the alleged incidents.

“This new measure by the Trump administration will not affect only the diplomatic ties, especially the cooperation on issues of mutual interest, and exchanges of various kinds, but also hundreds of thousands of Cubans living on both sides of the Florida Straits,” Rodriguez said.