The ailments suffered by Canadian diplomats in Havana are “a mystery,” according to the first official report about the issue offered this Wednesday by Canadian officials.
According to the report, the Canadian Mounted Police is investigating the possible causes of the complaints, reported by Canadian diplomats in Cuba during 2017, but until now the origin is a mystery.
A total of 27 Canadians, between diplomatic personnel and their families, have been examined after the report. Eight of them needed health care for symptoms like dizzy spells, headaches and nose bleeds.
The Canadian authorities explained that until now the families of three diplomats in Havana have returned to Canada, two of them after suffering symptoms; but that the level of Canadian diplomatic personnel in the Cuban capital had not changed because some new diplomats, fully informed about the medical problems, have arrived to work in the embassy.
They said there are no signs that anyone has suffered permanent damage, and since then those who needed care have returned to work or to school. They also commented that they are working with the Cuban and U.S. authorities in the investigation of the incident.
Most of them in May
Most of the cases were reported in May, although there were separate incidents in August and December in which those affected felt a strong pressure in their ears, said the Canadian officials.
According to CTV News, recently declassified memos show that the Canadian government sent a physician to Havana to examine the diplomats and their family members. The visit in June of Dr. Jeffrey Chernin of Health Canada revealed similar symptoms to those experienced by the U.S. personnel in Cuba.
The complaints had also been reported by some 20 U.S. diplomats in Havana and considered an “attack” by the U.S. media and politicians.
Even though the Donald Trump government has not directly blamed Cuba for the incidents, it withdrew the major part of its personnel in the embassy in Havana and suspended the issuing of visas, in addition to expelling 17 Cuban diplomats from Washington.
This Tuesday, in a hearing of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, Department of State high-ranking officials said that perhaps the “attacks” are not sonic, as they had sustained until now, and that, despite the investigations, their government still doesn’t know who is behind them or how they were carried out.
However, Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who presided over the hearing, insisted that the “attacks” are “documented incidents” and said that the Cuban government must know who was responsible for them.
Cuba has denied any responsibility in the incidents and says it has found no evidence in the investigation carried out by its experts.
After the Senate hearing, Josefina Vidal, director general for the United States of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, said that the real purpose of the Senate hearing was not “to establish the truth” but rather “to impose by force and with no evidence at all an accusation that they haven’t been able to prove.”
A preliminary FBI report, leaked recently to the press, affirms that its investigation in Havana has not found proof that what caused the complaints of the U.S. diplomatic personnel and their family members were sonic waves.
Nevertheless, in an interview with the AP news agency, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said a few days ago that his government was not planning on returning for the time being the major part of its diplomats in Havana to not place them “intentionally in danger.”
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