Mysterious attacks against U.S. diplomats stationed in Cuba are threatening to quash blossoming relations between our countries.
Separated by only 90 miles — here to Kansas City — we recently have begun to enjoy increased trade (Cuba imports 80 percent of its food) and tourism after an almost 60-year freeze in relations.
But ever since the first of the year, some employees — 21 to date — of the American Embassy, as well as those at the Canadian Embassy, in Havana have suffered from what are termed “sonic attacks,” resulting in loss of hearing, cognitive impairments and in some cases, brain damage.
In response, President Donald Trump has ordered all non-essential employees to return home, though he did not go so far as to blame Cuba for the incidents. For its part, Cuban authorities have been uncharacteristically cooperative in trying to get to the root of the problem, going so far as to allow the FBI free rein to investigate the mysterious attacks.
Some suspect a third party is involved.
Cuban émigrés largely confined to south Florida, are still smarting from their long ago mistreatment by the Castro regime. Among their current complaints is that former President Barack Obama was unwilling to carry their torch in 2015 when he negotiated a rapprochement with the ailing Fidel Castro, easing the economic embargo and restoring diplomatic relations.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is their current voice box.
Because Cuba remains a police state it’s not a stretch of the imagination to think some branch — possibly unbeknownst to leadership — has a role in these dastardly deeds.
It also seems likely Russia, Cuba’s former patron, could be interested in such espionage.
BECAUSE Mr. Trump is no fan of Cuba, calling it a “corrupt and destabilizing regime,” in a recent address to the United Nations, Cuba has no time to lose in finding who is behind these mysterious attacks in order to salvage what is quickly becoming a most-tenuous relationship.
— Susan Lynn
