Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodr\u00edguez said this Tuesday that the measure announced by the Department of State of expelling 15 Cuban diplomats from Washington, \u201cwithout the conclusive results of the investigation,\u201d has \u201can eminently political\u201d character.<\/p>\n
In a press conference held in the venue of the Foreign Ministry, Rodr\u00edguez urged the U.S. government \u201cnot to continue politicizing\u201d this matter, which \u201ccan provoke an undesirable escalation and would rarify and reverse even more bilateral relations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. government \u201cis responsible for the present and possible future deterioration of bilateral relations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cuban foreign minister said that the U.S. decision is \u201cunfounded\u201d and \u201cunacceptable\u201d like the pretext used to justify it. \u201cIt is not a measure of reciprocity, because there hasn\u2019t been a Cuban measure to reciprocate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t a single evidence about the occurrence of the alleged incidents or of its causes,\u201d he insisted.<\/p>\n
He pointed out, as he did days before in the United Nations, that the Cuban government \u201ccategorically\u201d rejects any responsibility in the alleged matters and reaffirmed that the island \u201chas never perpetrated, nor will it ever perpetrate attacks of any sort against diplomatic officials or their relatives, without any exception.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNeither has it ever allowed nor will it ever allow its territory to be used by third parties with that purpose,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Rodr\u00edguez reiterated the Cuban authorities\u2019 disposition of fostering a \u201cserious and objective cooperation\u201d with its U.S. counterparts \u201cwith the purpose of clarifying these facts\u201d and requested a \u201cmore effective\u201d cooperation by the U.S.<\/p>\n
Not a particle of evidence<\/p>\n
During the press conference, the Cuban foreign minister listed the facts and investigations carried out by the island\u2019s government to discover what occurred. He assured that in his meeting with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson the latter \u201cdid not contribute an iota of conclusive information\u201d about the \u201cattacks.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is \u201cscience fiction, futurism\u2026,\u201d he said referring to the content of the reports leaked by the Department of State to the press. \u201cGibberish, it is a rhetoric that tries to hide the lack of conclusive results,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He affirmed that the Cuban authorities \u201chave acted with utmost seriousness, professionalism and immediacy\u201d and that the investigation made has been \u201cexhaustive\u201d and \u201ca priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreover, he affirmed that since the notification of the \u201cincidents\u201d by the Department of State \u201cmeasures adopted to protect the US diplomatic staff, their relatives and residences were reinforced\u201d and \u201cnew expeditious communication channels were established\u201d with the U.S.<\/p>\n
However, Rodr\u00edguez regretted \u201cthe belated, fragmented and insufficient information\u201d supplied by the U.S. government, in the face of which they were asked for details on several occasions during the investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly after repeated requests were conveyed to the U.S. Government, some representatives of specialized agencies of that country finally traveled to Havana,\u201d explained the minister, who said that the island\u2019s authorities granted the U.S. experts \u201call the facilities\u201d and assessed as \u201cpositive\u201d the three visits made by them in the months of June, August and September.<\/p>\n
The Cuban foreign minister affirmed that the Cuban investigators \u2013 among them physicians, scientists and police authorities \u2013 were not given permission to examine the U.S. citizens affected by the alleged attacks, nor to exchange with the U.S. physicians who cared for them nor visit the places where the events hypothetically took place.<\/p>\n
This absence of \u201creliable first-hand and verifiable\u201d information has been, in the opinion of the minister, \u201cthe main obstacle to clarify the incidents\u201d by the Cuban experts, who \u2013 as a preliminary result \u2013 have concluded that \u201caccording to the available information and the data provided by the United States, there is no evidence of the occurrence of alleged incidents, nor the causes and origin of the effects on health notified by the U.S. diplomats and their relatives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The island\u2019s investigators point out that neither \u201chave the possible authors or persons with motivations, intentions or means to carry out this type of actions been identified.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t a particle of evidence,\u201d affirmed Rodr\u00edguez Parrilla.<\/p>\n
The Cuban consulate in the United States will remain with only one official to attend to the island\u2019s large community in that country, said Bruno Rodr\u00edguez, who denounced the \u201csituation of extraordinary precariousness\u201d of the diplomatic venue after the expulsion of the majority of its personnel.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can the impact on the issues of family reunification and the granting of visas be assessed after this has been done, if almost all the consular services in Havana and Washington were to be brusquely cut?\u201d asked the head of Cuban diplomacy.<\/p>\n
Sources from the island\u2019s Foreign Ministry confirmed to the EFE news agency that once the diplomats come back in a week there will remain in Washington only eight officials out of the 23 who originally worked in the Cuban mission, reopened a bit over two years ago.<\/p>\n
This is something that will be \u201cregrettably\u201d repeated in Havana, where the U.S. embassy indefinitely suspended the paperwork for the application of visas and will only maintain services for emergency cases.<\/p>\n
Rodr\u00edguez also \u201ccategorically\u201d affirmed that \u201cever since the creation of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington (1977) until now the Cuban diplomatic officials have never carried out nor are they carrying out intelligence activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have not done so, none of the diplomatic officials on the list of the (U.S.) Department of State who have been ordered to leave the country have done so,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cCuba has not adopted any measure against the United States\u201d<\/p>\n
In relation to the health of bilateral relations after the most recent decisions of the Department of State, the foreign minister recalled that \u201cCuba has adopted no measure against the United States\u201d and has favored \u201ca respectful course\u201d for the dialogue between the two countries.<\/p>\n
Rodr\u00edguez affirmed that the withdrawal of part of the U.S. diplomatic personnel from Havana and the expulsion of the 15 Cuban officials in Washington does \u201caffect and will affect\u201d bilateral relations, and pointed out that the U.S. government is responsible for this reversal.<\/p>\n
He affirmed that the departure of the Cuban diplomats from the United States leaves consular operations in \u201cextreme precariousness,\u201d since only one official will remain to attend to them.<\/p>\n
However, he did not specify how much the paperwork of the Americans and resident Cubans who wish to travel to the island could be affected, and said the Department of State is the one who should answer for the damages that the measures suppose for the family reunification processes and the temporary and definitive visas as part of the migration agreements.<\/p>\n
The minister referred to statements by officials of the Department of State leaked by the U.S. press \u201cwith political motives\u201d and regretted the \u201clack of seriousness\u201d of the focus used by them to deal with what happened.<\/p>\n
This is, he said, \u201can incomprehensible rhetoric\u201d that \u201ctries to hide the lack of data and evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also considered incomprehensible that only now was the existence of a new affected diplomat revealed \u2013 the number 22, according to the U.S. authorities -, when his alleged effects date back to the month of January.<\/p>\n
Finally he ensured that none of the island\u2019s now expelled diplomats have carried out \u201cintelligence actions\u201d on U.S. territory, as \u201csome media\u201d have suggested.<\/p>\n
EFE \/ OnCuba<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodr\u00edguez said this Tuesday that the measure announced by the Department of State of expelling 15 Cuban diplomats from Washington, \u201cwithout the conclusive results of the investigation,\u201d has \u201can eminently political\u201d character. In a press conference held in the venue of the Foreign Ministry, Rodr\u00edguez urged the U.S. government \u201cnot to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3134,"featured_media":104167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13944],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[33546,8689],"class_list":["post-104166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cuba-usa"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n