Cubans fear for their economic future after US withdraws sick diplomats
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Rio de Janeiro: It was grim, unsettling news: the United States warned Americans not to travel to Cuba and ordered the withdrawal of more than half its diplomats in Havana.
The announcement, which spread around the island in spurts, largely by word-of-mouth, dealt a harsh blow to Cubans who had hoped the nascent normalisation of relations with the US that began in late 2014 would usher in a period of economic growth and greater prosperity in the impoverished communist nation.
The lobby bar of the Hotel Capri in Havana, Cuba. New details about a string of mysterious ‘health attacks’ on US diplomats in Cuba indicate the incidents were narrowly confined within specific rooms. Photo: AP
“It’s a shame that they continue to throw up obstacles preventing two countries that are so close to engage culturally,” said Yaylen Vilches, 26, manager of El Dandy, one of Havana’s most popular private restaurants. “This doesn’t just hurt us; they’re hurting people in both countries.”
The measures announced on Friday were taken in response to hearing loss and other ailments that US government employees in Cuba had experienced in recent months. The mysterious so-called “sonic attacks” stirred anxiety and dread on the island.
US officials said 21 US diplomats and family members have been afflicted by health problems of unknown origin, mild traumatic brain injury, permanent hearing loss, loss of balance, severe headaches and brain swelling. Several Canadians have also been affected. The attacks occurred in the diplomats’ residences and in hotels they frequent. They began in mid-2016 with the most recent in August.
The State Department’s decision to stop issuing visas in Havana indefinitely leaves thousands of Cubans in limbo. Washington typically grants 20,000 immigrant visas a year to reunite Cubans with relatives in the US, and thousands more to enable students, academics and tourists to travel.
“This will have many repercussions,” said Harold Cardenas, a popular Cuban blogger studying international relations at Columbia University. “The most immediate is it will perpetuate estrangement, not just political, but physical. There will be a price, and it will be paid by Cuban families.”
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The travel notice could deal a blow to the island’s tourism sector, one of its economic engines, and call into question the viability of dozens of projects under construction. Since diplomatic relations with Washington were restored, Havana has begun an ambitious program to build up its dilapidated tourism infrastructure. It announced plans to partner with international hotel chains and other investors to build hundreds of new projects by 2030, including resorts with golf courses and marinas.
The US Embassy inHavana. Photo: AP
Americans remain nominally barred by law from travelling to Cuba as tourists. Yet the number of American visitors increased sharply after the Obama administration relaxed travel restrictions.
The Trump administration preserved many Obama-era changes that eased travel, while assuming a more antagonistic posture toward Havana. Despite that, Cuban officials continued to woo American travellers.
The government has sought to persuade visitors that its hotel infrastructure will be in top shape by the winter, a peak travel season, despite the considerable damage that Hurricane Irma caused this month.
Cuba’s “commitment to you is not limited to recovering from the effects of the hurricane,” Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said in the Communist Party newspaper Granma, “but that everything will be better than before and that we will have as a final result an updated and higher quality tourist product”.
That optimism stood in sharp contrast to the mood of Silvio Ortega and his wife, Julia de la Rosa, owners of a bed-and-breakfast. The couple invested thousands of dollars in recent years to turn a bare-bones room rental business into a 10-room establishment with a pool and a stunning view of Havana.
After 2014, their client base, once mainly European, became increasingly American and upscale. “We watched the rise of American tourism with great optimism and enthusiasm,” Ortega said. That’s why news of the travel warning, which a reporter relayed during a phone conversation, landed like a thud. “I have the impression that the American people adhere to the laws and are reluctant to cross them,” he added.
The mysterious health problems have triggered a flurry of theories among Cubans. Some think a third country may have targeted diplomats with a sophisticated weapon. Others have suggested that groups of Cubans opposed to improved relations – be it exiles or hard-line Cubans on the island – could be to blame.
“It’s not a secret that there are sectors that need an enemy, and perhaps now they are finding a way to return to the past,” said Cardenas, whose blog, La Joven Cuba, gave voice to a generation loyal to, but diplomatically critical of, the Castro government. “In Cuba, there is a sector that considers improved relations with the United States a betrayal.”
New York Times with agencies
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