America and Cuba

Category: diplomacy

  • Cuban Diplomats Disrupt U.S.-Held Event at United Nations

    Cuban Diplomats Disrupt U.S.-Held Event at United Nations

    October 18, 2018–As U.S. diplomats held an event at the United Nations to discuss political repression in Cuba on Tuesday, Cuban diplomats disrupted speakers by banging the tables and shouting.

    “This is a sick joke,” Kelley E. Currie, U.S. representative to the UN Economic and Social Council said at the outset of the meeting as noisemakers interrupted her opening statement. Pressing on, Currie outlined her concerns about the Cuban government’s detention of its citizens for political purposes.

    Political Prisoners

    According to Currie, Cuba authorities arbitrarily detained 5,000 of its nationals for political reasons in 2017. She said the government sentenced many “on arbitrary charges like contempt of Cuban authorities” and classified others for being “pre-criminal” or socially dangerous.

    “More and more, Cuban repression relies on raids on homes and offices, short-term detentions and public denunciations known as repudio,” Currie said, adding, “which I think is what we may be seeing right now.”

    Boisterous shouting continued throughout the event as other panelists spoke of their experiences.

    Why Highlight Cuba Alone?

    Currie later held a press conference and complained about the disruptions of the event. “If the diplomats behave this way, how do the police behave?” she asked. “It has no place in the United Nations.”

    One reporter asked her why the United States focused its attention on Cuba when other countries also practice political repression.

    The matter of political prisoners in Cuba is “under highlighted and needs attention,” Currie said. “We feel it’s important to shine a light on a regime that is undermining security across Latin America,” Currie said, referring to Cuba’s influence in Venezuela and Nicaragua.

    Watch Here

    For more, watch the 49-minute event here.

     

  • U.S. Government Makes Diplomatic Staff Cuts Permanent

    U.S. Government Makes Diplomatic Staff Cuts Permanent

    March 2–The U.S. government announced it is making its previous staffing reductions at its embassy in Havana, Cuba permanent.

    The U.S. State Department cut its staff by roughly half last September following an unexplained medical conditions experienced by 24 U.S. personnel who heard sonic noises in their homes, the embassy and in their hotel rooms in Havana, Cuba.

    The staff cuts are scheduled to become permanent on March 5.

    “The embassy will continue to operate with the minimum personnel necessary to perform core diplomatic and consular functions, similar to the level of emergency staffing maintained during ordered departure,” a State Department statement said on March 2. “We still do not have definitive answers on the source or cause of the attacks, and an investigation into the attacks is ongoing. The health, safety, and well-being of U.S. government personnel and family members are of the greatest concern for Secretary Tillerson and were a key factor in the decision to reduce the number of personnel assigned to Havana.”

    It is a set back for advocates of improving relations. About two dozen travel agencies had asked the State Department to restore its staff in Havana and ease its travel advisories to Cuba.

    Furthermore, proponents of strengthening U.S.-Cuban relations said the staff reductions have caused a backlog in the processing of visa applications. James Williams, president of Engage Cuba, released a statement saying it could open up opportunities for U.S. adversaries. “This decision will be applauded in Moscow and Beijing, as both countries are poised to take advantage of Cuba’s historic transition of power while the United States remains on the sidelines,” he said.

  • U.S.-Cuba Relations Still Adrift As Sonic-Attack Mystery Remains Unsolved

    U.S.-Cuba Relations Still Adrift As Sonic-Attack Mystery Remains Unsolved

    Feb. 20 – One year after the United States first sent a diplomatic note of protest to the Cuban government regarding strange sonic noises impacting the health of U.S. government officials working in Cuba, relations between the two countries remains frayed. In the wake of the sonic attacks impacting 24 Americans and eight Canadians, the United States cut its diplomatic staff by half and ordered 15 Cuban diplomats out of Washington.

    Even now, investigations into the strange noises have not resulted in any substantial answers.

    As the mystery remains unsolved, U.S.-Cuban relations face a crucial test. The U.S. State Department is expected to decide by March 4 whether to send diplomats back to Havana or whether to make its staff reductions permanent.

    The Sonic Story

    A detailed and thorough Feb. 14 report by ProPublica presents a clear picture of the timeline of events, the ongoing investigations and the recent history of U.S.-Cuban relations. The report is based on interviews with more than three dozen U.S. and foreign officials and a review of confidential government documents. While the entire story is intriguing, perhaps what is most fascinating is the lack of answers.

    “After nearly a year of investigation that has drawn on intelligence, defense and technology expertise from across the U.S. government, the FBI has been unable to determine who might have attacked the diplomats or how,” wrote ProPublica Reporters Tim Golden and Sebastian Rotella. “Those frustrations have roiled the U.S. national-security community, putting the FBI increasingly at odds with the CIA over the case.”

    Here’s what the reporters discovered:

    • The first indication of a problem came when U.S. CIA officers working under diplomatic cover heard cicada-like buzzes in heir homes in Havana’s Western suburbs in late November 2016. They reported that the noise seemed to be directed toward them.
    • In addition to the U.S. embassy, incidents occurred at the Hotel Capri and Hotel Nacional.
    • Symptoms varied widely, ranging from headaches, hearing problems, nausea, tinnitus and dizziness.
    • The FBI ruled out its initial hypothesis on a sonic device attack. The CIA did not concur. Meanwhile, the State Department says, “No cause has been ruled out.”
    • Investigators say there’s a possibility “sound was used to mask some other harmful agent or technology.”
    • The Cuban government insist they “had nothing to do with the incidents.” FBI investigators did not find any evidence of Cuban involvement, and they privately attest to the Cuban government‘s cooperation with the investigation.
    • Russia is an “obvious suspect” with a possible motive and ability to carry out the attack, but officials have not found any real evidence of their involvement.
    • The Canadian foreign ministry handled the situation differently, maintaining its staff level and asking for assistance from the Cuban government.

    For more on this story, follow the link in the above story to the ProPublica report.

     

     

  • Post Sonic Attacks, Doctors Find Evidence of Brain Changes

    Post Sonic Attacks, Doctors Find Evidence of Brain Changes

    In September 2017, the U.S. State Department announced that U.S. embassy employees in Havana, Cuba had been targeted by mysterious attacks, which caused 24 U.S. officials and their spouses to fall ill.

    Symptoms included hearing loss, dizziness, headaches, fatigue, cognitive issues and difficulty sleeping.

    Evacuation and Travel Warnings

    The State Department ordered the evacuation of much of its Cuban embassy staff and warned U.S. citizens against traveling to Cuba. “Because our personnel’s safety is at risk, and we are unable to identify the source of the attacks, we believe U.S. citizens may also be at risk and warn them not to travel to Cuba,” the State Department warning said.

    The U.S. Embassy in Cuba also warned that attacks have also occurred in the Hotel Nacional and the Hotel Capri — two upper-scale tourist accommodations.

    Evidence & Information Sharing

    The incident has further frayed relations between the two countries as a majority of U.S. diplomats left Havana and the U.S. government ordered 15 Cuban officials to leave their embassy in Washington, D.C.

    The Cuban government denies responsibility for the attacks and says there is no evidence proving the attack against the Americans. In November, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez met with about a dozen of U.S. senators and House members and communicated that Cuba is cooperating on the investigation.

    By December, physicians treating the victims found evidence of brain abnormalities. Specifically, doctors discovered changes in the white matter tracts that act like information highways between brain cells, according to the Associated Press. “It’s the most specific finding to date about physical damage, showing that whatever it was that harmed the Americans, it led to perceptible changes in their brains,” a Dec. 6 AP article said.

    Doctors are now referring sonic attacks as “directional acoustic phenomena,” according to the Associated Press. The physicians’ findings are expected to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

    Mystery Remains

    Much of the mystery over the attacks remains, and U.S. investigators are being careful about sharing information.

    “We are convinced these were targeted attacks,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said at a Dec. 6 news conference in Brussels. He added the United States has reservations about sharing information about its findings for two reasons: to respect for the privacy of the victims and to prevent the perpetrator from gaining useful information about its effectiveness.

    “What we’ve said to the Cubans is a small island, you got a sophisticated security apparatus, you probably know who’s doing it, you can stop it. It’s as simple as that,” Tillerson added.