The Cuban government denied a United States government report Tuesday that said directed radio wave frequencies were the most likely cause of strange illnesses experienced by U.S. diplomats in the island nation.
Dozens of U.S. embassy staff in Cuba have reported experiencing so-called “Havana syndrome,” including unexplained hearing loss, vertigo, fatigue and headaches, according to a report by Reuters.
Canada cut its own embassy staff in Cuba after at least 14 of its citizens experienced similar symptoms, according to a report earlier this month by the BBC. (RELATED: Microwave Weapons May Have Been Used Against U.S. Embassy Officials In Havana)
The U.S. government report published Dec. 6 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine alleges that the directed radio frequencies are the most likely cause of these symptoms, but does not place blame on anyone for the frequencies. The Trump administration, however, has blamed the symptoms on attacks from a secret weapon, according to Reuters.
The president of Cuba’s Academy of Sciences, Luis Velasquez, said Tuesday that his organization “disagrees with the final conclusion regarding the causes of the ailments,” and asserted that a lack of communication between the U.S. and Cuba has hindered the investigation into the mysterious ailments, according to Reuters.
A similar report that led to allegations of “sonic attacks” was published in 2019 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, according to earlier reporting by the BBC. Cuban scientists rejected the findings of that report as well. (RELATED: Mysterious Sound Illness That Hit Diplomats In Cuba And China Is Back)
Cuba’s ambassador to the United States, José Ramón Cabañas, has also frequently rebuked studies about “Havana syndrome” on Twitter.
.@StateDept complaints about #Cuba 2017-18 Aledged Sonic Attacks (No evidence) 2019 Military Presence in Venezuela (No evidence) 2020 Medical support to dozens of Countries (lot of evidence) 2021 Let me guess, recovering to fast from #COVID19 (lot of evidence)
— José Ramón Cabañas (@JoseRCabanas) May 25, 2020
.@SenatorLeahy : “These incidents (so called “sonic attacks”) were exploited by the Trump Administration to buttress its punitive and cynical isolationist policy towards #Cuba that has failed to achieve any of its objectives” https://t.co/baC32KsepB
— José Ramón Cabañas (@JoseRCabanas) December 6, 2020
Cuban Academy of Sciences’ initial assessment of the Standing Committee’ report, based on the work of a panel of #Cuba experts that has spent more than two years investigating the complaints. https://t.co/BqR5RJMaDj
— José Ramón Cabañas (@JoseRCabanas) December 15, 2020
The U.S. pulled several diplomats out of Guangzhou, China, in 2018 after they experienced similar “abnormal sensations of sound and pressure” and one diplomat was diagnosed with mild brain trauma, according to the BBC.