HAVANA – He regime Castro described as a “political operation” without foundations a report on the so-called “Havana syndrome”, released by several international media outlets this weekend and in which the existence of mysterious attacks on US diplomats was revived. They began on the island in 2016, but this time linked to Russian intelligence.
The North American television network CBS, the Russian magazine The Insider and its German colleague Der Spiegel released a journalistic investigation that suggested that the diplomats had indeed suffered a sonic attack with a mysterious weapon. In the report, retired US Army lieutenant colonel Greg Edgreen indicated that the initiative came from Russia.
The release of that information sparked reactions Monday with the U.S. Department of Defense confirming that an employee who attended a NATO summit last year in Lithuania had exhibited symptoms similar to those of diplomats, the latest publicly known case. .
“Havana syndrome” remains under investigation, but includes a series of health problems dating back to 2016, when officials working at the U.S. Embassy in Havana reported sudden and unexplained intracranial pressure, headache or hearing, or dizziness.
Injuries suffered by key U.S. government personnel or their family members were revealed in a “60 Minutes” report on Sunday that suggested Russia is behind the incidents, one of which took place during the 2023 NATO summit. in Vilnius.
“I can confirm that a senior Department of Defense official experienced symptoms similar to those reported in the anomalous health incidents,” deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on Monday. Singh referred questions about whether Russia played a role to the intelligence community, which is still investigating the matter.
Reaction of the Cuban regime
From Cuba, the deputy director for the United States of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Johana Tablada, considered that the publication of the press report was a “political operation” and “propaganda” that seeks to revive “conspiracy theories” that only serve the purposes of island to justify sanctions against the communist regime by the United States.
“Our reaction is concern,” he said. “It tries to present Cuba as a threat to the national security of the United States, even when Cuba is not put as the supposed main actor, it puts Cuban territory as the place that lends itself so that foreign powers can carry out acts against the United States. ”.
Dozens of people affected
And although the Castro regime tries to distance itself from the attack, the truth is that since the end of 2016, some 200 people, including American diplomats and their families in Cuba – and a small group of Canadians – as well as later in other nations, said they had felt symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, vomiting, loss of balance, headache and deafness caused by a sharp and paralyzing sound.
Unlike any other country in which similar episodes were also reported, in relation to Cuba, these were the argument for the paralysis of the binational diplomatic relationship by the United States. The government of then-President Donald Trump (2017-2021) further toughened sanctions against the island to pressure a change in the political model, also giving a radical turn to the approach of his predecessor Barack Obama, who traveled to the Caribbean nation to shake hands. of the dictator Raúl Castro.
The first reports date back to 2016 among officials at the United States Embassy in Cuba, which is why these symptoms became known as “Havana syndrome” among the media.
Later, American officials in other countries such as China, Vietnam, Germany or the United States itself reported similar symptoms, but the name of the incident became common. A report by several US intelligence agencies from March 2023 concluded that it was “unlikely” that it was a sonic attack or that a foreign power was behind it.
The United States began officially calling it an “anomalous health incident.” While the Havana regime has dismissed the journalistic investigation involving Cuba and Russia.
Source: With information from AP
