A car drives past the building of the the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana, Cuba. | Photo: Reuters
Sept. 29, 2017| telesur — Washington has announced that the United States is removing about 60 percent of government staff out of Cuba, the Associated Press reports, citing “specific attacks” that allegedly harmed U.S. diplomats.
It claims its diplomats were “attacked” in local hotels. Washington, however, has not released specific information about the nature of these so-called “attacks.”
The U.S. government has also indefinitely suspended visa processing in Cuba, warning its citizens that they could be “harmed” in Cuba.
The remaining 40 percent of employees who will remain at the Havana embassy are “emergency personnel.”
“The Cuban government has never perpetrated nor will it ever perpetrate attacks of any kind against diplomats,” Cuba said in a statement on Thursday, when rumors of the embassy staff cut began swirling.
“The Cuban government has never permitted nor will it ever permit the use of its territory by third parties for this purpose.”
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is “still reviewing his options on how best to protect American personnel in Cuba,” CBS News reported.
