'Sonic attacks' lead to USA pulling embassy staff from Cuba

Last updated: September 29, 2017 at 16:26 pm

The US government will withdraw most of its embassy staff from Cuba in a dramatic response to what senior officials described as “specific attacks” on diplomats.

The country is also warning people not to visit Cuba.

The decision deals a blow to the halting rapprochement between the US and Cuba, longtime enemies who only recently began putting their hostility behind them.

The embassy in Havana will lose roughly 60% of its US staff, and will stop processing visas in Cuba indefinitely, the American officials said.

In a new travel warning, the US says some of the attacks have occurred in Cuban hotels, and that while American tourists aren’t known to have been hurt, they could be exposed if they travel to Cuba.

Plan to expel Cuban diplomats?

Almost a year after diplomats began describing unexplained health problems, US investigators still don’t know what or who is behind the attacks, which have harmed at least 21 diplomats and their families, some with injuries as serious as traumatic brain injury and permanent hearing loss.

Although the state department has called them “incidents” and generally avoided deeming them attacks, officials said Friday the US now has determined there were “specific attacks” on American personnel in Cuba.

For now, the United States is not ordering any Cuban diplomats to leave Washington, another move that the administration had considered, officials said.

Several US lawmakers have called on the administration to expel all Cuban diplomats.

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In May, Washington asked two to leave, but emphasized it was to protest Havana’s failure to protect diplomats on its soil, not an accusation of blame.

Cubans seeking visas to enter the US may be able to apply through embassies in nearby countries, officials said. The US will also stop sending official delegations to Cuba, though diplomatic discussions will continue in Washington.

The moves deliver a significant setback to the delicate reconciliation between the US and Cuba, two countries that endured a half-century estrangement despite their locations only 90 miles apart.

In 2015, Barack Obama and Cuba’s president Raul Castro restored diplomatic ties. Embassies re-opened, and travel and commerce restrictions were eased. Trump has reversed some changes, but has broadly left the rapprochement in place.