A secret report uncovers the mistakes and excesses of Trump in the management of the alleged “sonic attack” in Havana | International

Al modus operandi of Donald Trump to corner Cuba and end the policy of Barack Obama continues to fall mud. A few weeks after being criticized for including the island in the list of countries sponsoring terrorism days before leaving the White House, a recently declassified secret State Department report suggests that its decision to dismantle the Embassy of Havana in early 2018, in reaction to alleged “sonic attacks” against its diplomatic staff, was a political “response” plagued by mismanagement, lack of coordination and non-compliance with procedures.

The secret document declassified now – at the request of the US National Security Archive – reveals that Trump made the decision to reduce 60% of the consular personnel in Havana, and to deactivate the operation of the embassy in practice, without having proof some that Cuba was behind the mysterious health problems that affected its officials.

“The mechanism of the cause of the injuries is currently unknown. We do not know the reason for these incidents, when they really started, or who did it, ”says an internal report from the State Department written in 2018, after four months of work.

The document in a way questions the actions of the former Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, for not appointing “a high official as the general person in charge” of the investigation, and also criticizes “the excessive secrecy” of the CIA for not sharing information with the Department. of State, which “delayed” the coordination of an “adequate response.” At no point does the report deny that the US diplomats suffered from health problems, but establishes that it was not possible to know the causes of what happened. And he assures that the North American reaction was deficient because it was “characterized by the lack of high-level leadership, the inefficiency of communications and systemic disorganization.”

The events occurred in late 2016 and early 2017, when a score of American diplomats bound for Havana, as well as members of their families, reported suffering from dizziness, vertigo and acute pain in the ears that could be caused by strange sounds. to which they had been exposed. According to their testimonies, the sounds came from a specific direction, and they had been heard in their own residences or, in some cases, in hotel rooms. The phenomenon also affected Canadian diplomats in the Cuban capital. In all, about 40 people were treated for these symptoms.

In mid-2017, the State Department stated that the cause of the health problems of its personnel could be due to a “sonic attack” by the Cuban government. And in October of that same year, Donald Trump was more direct: “I believe that Cuba is responsible; yes I believe it”, he claimed. In early 2018 Washington issued a warning notice not to travel to Cuba Y withdrew much of the staff of its diplomatic mission, reducing its activity to a minimum. In this way, Trump dealt a severe diplomatic blow to the thaw initiated by the Obama Administration, in addition to affecting tens of thousands of Cubans who were left without the possibility of obtaining a visa to travel to the United States.

“The decision to reduce the staff in Havana does not appear to have followed the standard procedures of the State Department, and was not preceded or followed by any formal analysis of the risks and benefits of the continued physical presence of US Government employees in La Havana ”, the recently declassified report pointed out in this regard.

A “science fiction” attack

“After four years of accusations, the United States Government has not been able to prove that something happened in Cuba, much less that attacks have taken place,” Carlos Fernández de Cossío, US Director General of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, told EL PAÍS. “None of the accusations has withstood the analysis of science. The US government refused to cooperate, to share evidence, to allow experts and scientists from both countries to work together in the search for answers, ”said the diplomat.

For Mitchell Valdés, director of the Center for Neurosciences of Cuba and head of the Cuban team in charge of the investigation, “the misnamed Havana syndrome it is seen as the great mystery of some attacks with science fiction weapons that damaged the brains of US diplomats in Cuba ”. In his view, “much of the mystery is due to a systematic suppression of important information by the previous US administration, and the dropper declassification of official documents is showing it.”

The scientist mentions a recent report from the US Academy of Sciences, in which “a panel of experts demolished the idea that there was brain damage in the group of diplomats involved, and highlighted the lack of evidence for any plausible attack or weapon. ”. “The report from the US Academy of Sciences,” adds Valdés, “cited a two-year buried report from the US Center for Disease Control, which states that most alleged ‘attack victims’ did not comply. your case definition ”.

Cossío assures that the “unsupported accusations” of the Trump Administration were a simple excuse that was used “to justify dozens of unilateral measures against Cuba, at a high cost to the Cuban people and relations with the United States.” “Cuba reiterated on many occasions its willingness to establish the necessary scientific and political cooperation to find answers to the symptoms reported by US diplomats. The government of that country never showed the will to find such answers,” said the diplomat.

For Peter Kornbluh, who directs the Documentation Project on Cuba of the National Security Archive, the institution that achieved the declassification of the report, what was revealed “does not solve the mystery of what happened in Cuba.” In his opinion, “the clues” to solve it are probably in the “still secret” records of the State Department, the CIA, the FBI and the Pentagon, and knowing them is of special “relevance” now, when the Biden Administration considers retaking Obama’s policy of rapprochement and reestablishing the work of the Embassy in Havana. No one believes that Trump’s decision to include Cuba on the list of terrorist countries, just before leaving the White House, was gratuitous. How Biden manages to overcome the path of stones and obstacles watered by his predecessor, is the next chapter on the relations between Havana and Washington.

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