The United States has expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from the country’s embassy, less than a week after pulling its own embassy workers from Cuba in response to a series of apparent sonic attacks on American personnel.
American officials in Cuba have experienced a strange assortment of brain-related illnesses, from dizziness to fatigue to hearing loss, which intelligence officials believe resulted from a series of attacks by unknown agents. The United States announced last Friday it would reduce its Cuban diplomatic presence to a bare-bones group of 27 people left to carry out emergency services. The decision to expel Cuban diplomats is intended to force the Cuban government to operate their embassy under the same conditions, State Department officials said Tuesday.
“The decision was made due to Cuba’s failure to take appropriate steps to protect our diplomats in accordance with its obligations under the Vienna Convention,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement. “This order will ensure equity in our respective diplomatic operations.”
The State Department originally stated it would not expel Cuban diplomats despite recalling Americans, drawing criticism from critics of the Castro regime like Sen. Marco Rubio.
Shameful that @StateDept withdraws most staff from @USEmbCuba but Castro can keep as many as he wants in U.S. https://t.co/YKDP6O0nEz
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) September 29, 2017
Rubio applauded the administration’s Tuesday decision.
The decision to expel 2/3 of Castro regime employees from embassy in D.C. was the right decision by @realDonaldTrump & @StateDept #Cuba
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 3, 2017
U.S. officials emphasized that the United States is not accusing the Cuban government of complicity in the attacks, but said that the Cuban government would have to provide assurance that no further attacks would occur before they would reverse their decision.
“We continue to maintain diplomatic relations with Cuba, and will continue to cooperate with Cuba as we pursue the investigation into these attacks,” Tillerson said.
