Mystery ‘attacks’ see US diplomats recalled
HAVANA The United States has delivered an ominous warning to Americans to stay away from Cuba and ordered home more than half the US diplomatic corps in Havana, acknowledging that neither the Cubans nor the FBI can figure out who or what is responsible for months of mysterious health ailments.
No longer tiptoeing around the issue, the Trump administration yesterday shifted to calling the episodes ‘‘attacks’’ rather than ‘‘incidents’’.
The US actions are sure to rattle already delicate ties between the longtime adversaries, who only recently began putting their hostility behind them.
The US Embassy in Cuba would lose roughly 60 per cent of its American staff and would stop processing visas for prospective Cuban travellers to the US indefinitely, officials said. Roughly 50 Americans had been working at the embassy.
US President Donald Trump said that in Cuba, ‘‘they did some very bad things’’ that harmed US diplomats, but he did not say who he might mean by ‘‘they’’.
Though US officials initially suspected some futuristic ‘‘sonic attack’’, the picture is muddy. The FBI and other agencies that searched homes and hotels where that incidents occurred found no devices.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who reviewed options for a response with Trump, said: ‘‘Until the government of Cuba can ensure the safety of our diplomats in Cuba, our embassy will be reduced to emergency personnel in order to minimise the number of diplomats at risk of exposure to harm.’’
Cubans said they were both heartbroken and enraged by the decision to stop processing visas, which would further tear at the seams of families already divided by the Florida Straits.
‘‘To think you can’t go see your family is a terrible thing,’’ said pensioner Xiomara Irene Louzado, 74, who had been planning a visit to the US to see her sister and nephews.
Louzado said she also wanted to visit the graves of her sister and mother. She had travelled to the US regularly, but now she no longer knew when she next could.
The US has a specific deal with its former Cold War foe to issue 20,000 visas a year to Cubans seeking to emigrate, agreed after a 1994 ‘‘rafter’’ exodus to prevent Cubans taking to the sea illegally in makeshift boats.
The US State Department con- firmed that US personnel first encountered unexplained physical effects in Cuban hotels. While American tourists aren’t known to have been hurt, the agency said they could be exposed if they travel to the island – a pronouncement that could hit tourism, a critical component of Cuba’s economy that has expanded in recent years as the US has relaxed restrictions.
At least 21 US diplomats and family members have been affected. The department said symptoms included hearing loss, dizziness, headache, fatigue, cognitive issues and difficulty sleeping.
The Trump administration has pointedly not blamed Cuba for perpetrating the attacks, and officials have spent weeks weighing how to minimise the risk for Americans in Cuba.
Cuba blasted the American move as ‘‘hasty’’ and lamented that it was being taken without conclusive investigation results.
Still, Josefina Vidal, Cuba’s top diplomat for US affairs, said her government was willing to continue cooperation with Washington ‘‘to fully clarify these incidents’’. Her government took the rare step of the inviting the FBI to the island after being presented with the allegations. AP, Reuters