What the Castro regime has been covering up about brain damaged diplomats in Havana

 This letter to the editor was published in The Washington Post on October 30, 2020.

 

Letters to the Editor

 

Opinion

Cuba has a long history of using sonic weapons

 The U.S. flag at the U. S. Embassy in Havana on Aug. 14, 2014. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

October 30, 2020

The Oct. 26 editorial “Another invisible enemy” was correct when it called for the perpetrators of sonic attacks on Americans in Cuba to be identified, Americans protected and a proper response delivered, but too many are quick to believe the claims from Cuban officials that nothing happened and that they had no knowledge of what caused the injuries.

The Castro regime has a history, stretching back decades, of harassing American diplomats such as: killing their pets, trying to run them down or crash into their vehicle and switching out mouthwash with urine. 

Furthermore, on Oct. 18, dissident Cuban artist Tania Bruguera described and recorded a sonic attack that caused her a headache and ear ache that she found difficult to tolerate. Two former Cuban political prisoners, Ernesto Diaz Rodriguez and Luis Zuniga, described at a forum held on Capitol Hill in November 2017 how prison officials used high-pitched sound to cause them physiological harm in 1979. This history and the recent attack against Ms. Bruguera using the same kind of sonic weapon with similar symptoms that had been visited on U.S. diplomats should invite greater scrutiny of Havana.

John Suarez, Falls Church

The writer is executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/letters-to-the-editor/cuba-has-a-long-history-of-using-sonic-weapons/2020/10/29/ab3155d6-1946-11eb-8bda-814ca56e138b_story.html

 

Health attacks in Cuba and China against U.S. diplomats: The mystery deepens and number of victims rise

More attacks in Cuba and similar attacks now in China

 
A State Department official told CBS News on June 8, 2018 that two more individuals from the U.S. embassy in Havana were undergoing medical evaluation, and that they could be suffering from the same type of injuries that affected 24 diplomats and family members between late 2016 and August of 2017. Equally disturbing reports have emerged in June of 2018 that U.S. diplomats in Beijing, China have suffered the same injuries along with unusual sounds.

This blog has been following this story since it went public on August 2017. Furthermore that 19 American tourists visiting Cuba were also impacted. All these signs surrounding what has occurred and the harm done is troubling.

Answers are still needed.

American diplomats under attack in Cuba? Did 2014-2017 concessions worsen Castro regime's behavior?

 Keep an eye on this disturbing story.

Are U.S. diplomats under attack in Cuba?

 The results, of the attempt to normalize relations with an abnormal regime in Cuba, according to The Washington Post editorial this evening, "have been dismal" and now "there's another sinister cost to tally" beyond the worsening human rights situation for Cubans since 2014 now apparently U.S. diplomats at the embassy in Havana have been severely harmed.. CBS News reported on August 24, 2017 that they had obtained and reviewed medical records "showing mild traumatic brain injuries and possible damage to the central nervous system as a result of the attacks." Furthermore, the number of injured diplomats identified had risen from an initial five to 16.

On August 9, 2017 State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert in a briefing revealed that two Cuban diplomats were expelled from the United States on May 23, 2017 in response to "incidents in Cuba."  U.S. officials reported initially that five U.S. diplomats were targeted by a "sonic weapon" that led to "severe hearing loss" that led to some of them canceling their tours and returning early to the United States.
 
A day later the Associated Press reported that the Canadian government had reported that at least one Canadian diplomat in Cuba has also been treated for hearing loss.

The attacks began in November of 2016 during the previous Administration which apparently had no knowledge of what was going on or downplayed it out of fear that it would tarnish President Obama's Cuba normalization legacy.

Back on December 17, 2014 this blog made the following observation: "Rewarding the hardline and rogue elements in the Castro regime is unlikely to improve the dictatorship's behavior to the contrary it may worsen."

Congress should hold hearings to find out what happened and if it is still happening and get to the bottom of what happened to 16 U.S. diplomats based in Cuba.