US Congress Delegation Visits Cuba to Deal with Alleged Attacks
HAVANA TIMES – A delegation of six US senators and representatives are paying a visit to the island to discuss with Cuban authorities the supposed attacks suffered by US diplomats stationed in Havana, reported dpa news.
The group is headed by Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, one of the greatest advocates of the thaw between Cuba and the United States that took place under President Obama.
Leahy has visited the island on several occasions. The last time was in February 2017, said Cuban state television. The representative from Florida, Kathy Castor, is also in Havana.
The agenda of the US politicians has not been made public, but a press conference by Leahy is scheduled to conclude his visit to the island on Wednesday.
Since the arrival at the White House of Donald Trump, tension has mounted between Washington and Havana, especially after the US government accused Cuba of failing to protect its diplomats who suffered mysterious acoustic attacks.
Cuba denied the accusations and offered to collaborate in the investigations, even accepting that an investigative team of the FBI enter the country, something unusual.
The crisis led the United States to expel a group of Cuban diplomats who worked in Washington and took out most of its personnel in Havana.
The tension has not reached a rupture of the diplomatic relations and for now the embassies of both countries are maintained. These were reopened in 2015 after decades of confrontation as former President Obama decided to promote rapprochement.
you have to be kidding! Somebody else maybe, someone with a record of paying their employees and contractors… Cuba does not need a racist, contentious, deadbeat to create a monument to himself in a country that has so much need of rebuilding successfully and carefully as change becomes possible. Investors in Cuba must be far more aware of reality and able to add meat without further depleting the bones that are left. The US airlines that have committed to Cuba as a destination are already in the weeds because of the US policy debacle, funding necessary change to accommodate tourism is pivotal. That industry is most important to restoring human interest in nations that are struggling to exist. Puerto Rico is an American territory and yet mainland US citizens have hardly a clue that millions still have no electricity, are swamped in unpayable debt and will be arriving here increasingly. Cuba is not America and has her own identity, why does the US seek to control the form of government when it is no shining example of peace, equality or prosperity itself? This is not a question for answers that attack. Think on it and be interested in learning. Progress is formed from deep knowledge.
The best possible remedy for this situation is to ask Trump to build a hotel or high end apartment building in Cuba. I am NOT kidding!!! It doesn’t even have to be profitable, but who knows, it might be.
My heart bleeds for those “poor” diplomats.
Allowing the FBI to land in Cuba but restricting their investigative access makes great PR but did little to help uncover the source of the problem. Many if the victims of the attack continue to suffer loss of hearing. Some have permanent aural damage. While it is clearly not in Cuba’s best interest to piss off the US, especially in view of their economy circling the drain, when have the Castros ever made decisions in the best interest of the Cuban people? Remember the abandonment of the Sugar industry? We do agree on one thing: the Leahy delegation will resolve nothing.
Cuba stonewalling? The Cuban government has been completely open and transparent in the handling of this alleged affair. In an unheard of move, they even invited the FBI into the country and opened all doors for them. U.S. investigators subsequently announced that they could find no evidence of Cuban involvement.
While Cuba has been completely open, the U.S. has not cooperated at all in the investigation, refusing to release even the barest of medical records regarding the alleged “victims.”
During the ensuing time period, many if not most of the diplomats (aka CIA agents) have miraculously recovered from the phantom “attacks.”
Bottom line: Cuba does not have the technology to create or utilize any sort of “sonic attack” weapons. Hell, they can’t even produce enough toilet paper.
Cuba has nothing to gain from attacking U.S. diplomats or any other U.S. or Canadian citizens. They would only gain from any potential increase in tourism.
Leahy and his posse, by the way, are only in Havana for a few days R & R and some great drinks and meals at Hotel Nacional– my personal happy place.
You sound like Trump. This was no “hoax”. Real people have experienced real problems. While there is no hard evidence to lay the blame at the feet of the Castros, their history of bad acts makes their culpability easy to believe.
The article also omits the fact that the Trump Cuba policy memorandum doesn’t relist Cuba as a terror sponsor, not to mention that Diaz-Balart bashed the delisting as putting politics above sensible foreign policy and not taking into account Cuba’s ties with American enemies and rivals and its sheltering of Black Panther militants and Puerto Rican independence fighters.
As of this point, the question is whether Raul Castro’s departure from power or death will cause Cuban-American Democrats to vote Mario Diaz Balart and Carlos Curbelo out of office and send Joe Garcia back to Congress (never mind that Ros-Lehtinen is leaving Congress after the 2018 midterms) because they will use Raul’s death to make the case that continued normal relations are acceptable because they knew that trade sanctions cost Cuba a lot of money to buy telecom equipment from China or steel tubes from Europe.
This delegation of legislators will likely do a handful of photo opportunities and turn around and go home. The Castro dictatorship will likely continue to stonewall US efforts to solve the mystery of behind these injured diplomats.
Why doesn’t the Congressional Delegation speak with their colleague Marco Rubio and ask him why he created such a ridiculous hoax.