The US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, assured this Friday that for his government it is an “urgent priority” to find out “who and what” are responsible for the so-called Havana syndrome.
He did so in the same appearance in which he appointed Jonathan Moore as the new director of the Health Incident Response Task Force, which advises the Administration on the alleged attacks.
The new officer is a senior official in the State Department itself, with experience in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Until that moment, the retired diplomat coordinated the agency Pamela spratlen, harshly criticized by a group of senators that, two weeks ago, they called for “urgent measures” to resolve the case, including the removal of the former ambassador from that position.
Blinken also appointed Ambassador Margaret Uyehara to lead the Care Coordination Team, dedicated to directly supporting affected employees.
“The issue of abnormal health incidents, including the interagency effort to protect and care for our staff and uncover the cause of these incidents, is a top priority for the Department, including its most senior leaders,” the State Department said in a statement this Friday.
Blinken noted that the State Department is working with “new technologies” to “more quickly and accurately assess a variety of potential causes of these incidents.”
“These anomalous health incidents have left our colleagues deeply damaged,” Blinken said in a public appearance, in which he used the official form (AHI) to refer to the strange neurological symptoms that more than 200 American diplomats and their families in various countries.
Blinken urged officials and family members to report these attacks to facilitate the investigation, noting that he had already met with several of them. “We will do everything absolutely possible to end these incidents as soon as possible,” he added.
Although he did not provide details, Blinken said the State Department is working with “new technologies” to “more quickly and accurately assess a variety of potential causes of these incidents.”
“The United States will go to the end of the investigation,” he said.
In early October, US President Joe Biden signed a victim support law of these attacks, whose origin is still unknown although some experts point out that they could be due to radio frequency energy.
Those affected report symptoms similar to those of brain injury, dizziness, headaches and lack of ability to concentrate.
In addition to Cuba, where the first cases were detected, in 2016, there have been similar incidents in China, Austria, Germany and even in Washington.
In 2017 Trump accused the Government of Cuba of being responsible for what the US authorities described then as “acoustic” or “sonic” attacks, which served as a pretext for the then president to break with the thaw diplomat with the Island.
An internal report released earlier this year revealed that Trump indicted Havana without evidence, and that mismanagement and lack of coordination dominated his response to the attacks.
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