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Español United States Congressmen are pressing for answers about the alleged “sonic attacks” in Cuba targeting diplomats and their families.
Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Ed Royce, the Republican from California, in addition to Democrat Eliot Engel of New York, demanded the State Department request assistance from health agencies to determine the medical cause and the impact of what occurred in the United States embassy in Cuba.
The strange metallic sound in 2016 caused hearing and eyesight damage as well as vertigo and memory loss in 24 US diplomats. The attacks also resulted in damage to a part of the brain responsible for communicating with other parts of the brain.
For this reason, the Center for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health should take a leading role in reviews of sonic attacks, the congressmen said. “Your expertise is needed now more than ever to determine what exactly happened to the US personnel in Cuba.”
Doctors, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other US intelligence agencies have tried to reach a greater understanding of what happened to the diplomats, but may need help from other federal agencies.
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“They have the doctors in the State Department looking at this, but that’s not really their role … their role is to treat people in the State Department,” a congressional aide said.
The US government has not yet determined who is to blame for the events. Absent an explanation, the US government has warned its citizens to avoid areas of the island where the diplomats were attacked.
🇨🇺 Security Message from US Embassy in #Cuba details post-incident #Havana hotel restrictions: https://t.co/lfqORdJKPr pic.twitter.com/oS09Qq5Izy
— OSAC (@OSACstate) October 6, 2017
In response to the attacks, Donald Trump’s administration chose to expel diplomats from the Cuban embassy to protest the island’s failure to protect Americans working on the island.
