The Wall Street Journal reported this Thursday, January 13, on such affections in the American diplomatic missions in Paris and Geneva.
The United States has still not found the cause and origin of the “Havana syndrome”, this mysterious disease which affected American diplomatic personnel in the Cuban capital between 2016 and 2018, said Thursday Anthony Blinken after the discovery of other cases, in Paris in particular.
The Wall Street Journal reported this Thursday, January 13, on such affections in the American diplomatic missions in Paris and Geneva. The “Havana Syndrome” is characterized by headaches, loss of balance, nausea, hearing problems, impaired vision and speech.
What is this syndrome?
Havana syndrome is a series of hearing problems, dizziness and headaches suffered by some Canadian and American diplomatic personnel based in Havana, in Cuba, from the end of 2016.
“It started in Cuba for twenty diplomats, who are often CIA intelligence agents’, had explained, on France culture, Philippe Hayes, responsible for teaching on intelligence policies at the School of International Affairs of Sciences-po Paris.
“Now, we have them on all continents and in a dozen countries : India, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Poland … This also concerns Austria, Vienna. These are places where there are a lot of American agents, “he reminded our colleagues at the microphone. The” Havana syndrome “would also have struck at Paris and Geneva.
200 people had these symptoms
In total, some 200 people, staff, managers and their families, have exhibited these symptoms since 2016.
“To this day, we don’t know exactly what happened, and we don’t know exactly who is responsible,” said the head of US diplomacy on MSNBC.
Antony Blinken clarified that the subject had been raised with the Russian authorities, without progress for the moment. At the end of 2020, the Washington Academy of Sciences concluded on the hypothesis of low-frequency waves outside the field of hearing able to affect staff behavior.
The US Secretary of State said he spoke about this “evil” with several of the people affected who told him about traumatic episodes.
“There is no doubt in my mind that people have been directly and powerfully affected,” he said. “We are working tirelessly, within the government, to clarify what happened, know who is responsible. And make sure that those who have been affected are taken care of and that our representatives are protected as best we can,” he added.
