‘Attacks’ see diplomats recalled
Cause of health problems is still unknown as the fragile state of detente between the US and Cuba suffers a setback.
The US 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 confirmed 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 Our embassy will be reduced to emergency personnel in order to minimise the number of diplomats at risk of exposure to harm. 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.
If the attacks have been committed by an outside power such as Russia or Venezuela to drive a wedge between the US and Cuba, as some investigators have theorised, a US pullout would end up rewarding the aggressor. On the other hand, officials have struggled with the moral dimensions of keeping diplomats in a place where the US government cannot guarantee their safety.
The administration considered expelling Cuban diplomats from the US, officials said, but for now no such action has been ordered.
Canada, which also has reported diplomats with unexplained health problems, said it had no plans to change its diplomatic position in Cuba.
After considering options that ranged all the way to a full embassy shutdown, Tillerson made the decision to reduce all non-essential personnel and all family members. Staffing at the embassy in Havana was already lower than usual due to recent hurricanes that whipped through Cuba.
The US will also stop sending official delegations to Cuba, though diplomatic discussions will continue in Washington.
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 earlier this year.
To medical investigators’ dismay, the symptoms have varied widely. In addition to hearing loss and concussions, some people have experienced nausea, headaches and ear-ringing. Some now suffer from problems with concentration and common word recall.
Some US diplomats reported hearing loud noises or feeling vibrations when the incidents occurred, but others heard and felt nothing. In some cases, the effects were narrowly confined, with victims able to walk ‘‘in’’ and ‘‘out’’ of blaring noises audible in only certain rooms or parts of rooms.
Though the incidents stopped for a time, they recurred as recently as late August.
Tour companies, airlines, cruises and others in the travel industry said would continue taking Americans to Cuba despite the dramatic safety warning from the State Department.
‘‘We continue to believe that Cuba is a safe destination for our travellers, and we will be running our tours until our assessment changes,’’ said Greg Geronemus, chief executive of SmarTours.
‘‘The experience that our travellers have had on the ground with the Cuban people has been nothing short of amazing. We have no reason to expect that these experiences will not continue.’’