U.S. warns Americans: Stay away from Cuba
About 60 percent of diplomatic staff also being brought home after unexplained hotel illnesses.
The United WASHINGTON — States issued an ominous warning to Americans on Friday to stay away from Cuba and ordered home more than half the U.S. diplomatic corps, acknowledging nei
ther the Cubans nor America’s FBI can figure out who or what is responsible for months of mysterious health ailments.
No longer tiptoeing around the issue, the Trump administration shifted to calling the
episodes “attacks” rather than “incidents.”
The U.S. actions are sure to rattle already delicate ties between the longtime adversaries who only recently began putting their hostility behind them. The U.S. Embassy in Cuba will lose roughly 60 percent of its American staff and will stop processing visas for prospec- tive Cuban travelers to the United States indefinitely, officials said. Roughly 50 Americans had been work- ing at the embassy.
President Donald Trump said that in Cuba “they did some very bad things” that harmed U.S. diplomats, but he didn’t say who he might mean by “they.”
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 minimize the number of diplomats at risk of exposure to harm.”
In Friday’s travel warning, the State Department con- firmed earlier reporting by The Associated Press that U.S. personnel first encoun- tered 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 pronounce- ment that could hit a critical component of Cuba’s econ- omy that has expanded in recent years as the U.S. has relaxed restrictions.
At least 21 diplomats and family members have been affected. The department said symptoms include hear-
ing loss, dizziness, headache, fatigue, cognitive issues and difficulty sleeping. Until Friday, the U.S. had generally referred to “incidents.” Til- lerson’s statement ended that practice, mentioning “attacks” seven times; the travel alert used the word five times. Still, the administration
has pointedly not blamed Cuba for perpetrating the attacks, and officials have spent weeks weighing how to minimize the risk for Americans in Cuba without unnec- essarily harming relations or falling into an adversary’s trap.
If the attacks have been committed by an outside power such as Russia or Venezuela to drive a wedge
between the U.S. and Cuba, as some investigators have theorized, a U.S. pullout would end up rewarding the aggressor. Officials have struggled with the moral dimensions of keeping dip- lomats in a place where the government cannot guarantee their safety.
The administration considered expelling Cuban diplo- mats from the U.S., officials said, but for now no such action has been ordered. That incensed several lawmakers.
“It’s an insult,” said Flor- ida Sen. Marco Rubio, a critic of Cuba’s government. “The Cuban regime succeeded in forcing Americans to down- scale a number of person- nel in Cuba, yet it appears they’re going to basically keep all the people they want in America to travel freely and spread misinformation.”