President Trump’s State Department on has ordered two Cuban embassy officials to leave the United States in response to “incidents” involving the health of Americans stationed in Havana, the State Department announced Wednesday.
“We take this very seriously,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters.
“What this requires is providing medical examinations to these people … this is still ongoing, so, we’re monitoring it,” she said.
Nauert declined to say what the specific incident was that led to their dismissal, but she said it “has caused a variety of physical symptoms” that prompted some State Department personnel to return to the United States. The events were first reported to the government in “late 2016,” but only surfaced in the press on Wednesday, prompting a delay in the briefing as Nauert’s team compiled information that could be distributed for public consumption.
“We don’t have ay definitive answers about the source or the cause of what we consider to be incidents,” she said.
But she made clear that the Trump team holds the Castro regime responsible. “We asked two officials who were accredited at the Embassy of Cuba in the united states to depart the United States,” Nauert said. “The Cuban government has a responsibility and an obligation under the Geneva Convention to protect our diplomats.”
