Citing mysterious and unsolved "health attacks" in Havana, the United States says it is making permanent its decision to withdraw 60 percent of its diplomats from Cuba.
Last October, the State Department ordered non-essential embassy personnel and the families of all staff to leave Havana, arguing the US could not protect them from unexplained illnesses that have caused hearing loss, dizziness and fatigue in two dozen employees.
By law, the department can only order diplomats to leave for six months before either sending them back or making the reductions permanent.
The six months expire Sunday. So the department said Friday it was setting in place a new, permanent staffing plan that maintains a lower level of roughly two-dozen people — "the minimum personnel necessary to perform core diplomatic and consular functions."
The department also said that the embassy in Havana would operate as an "unaccompanied post," meaning diplomats posted there will not be allowed to have spouses or children live with them in the country.
The downsizing of the embassy staff — and a travel warning the US issued warning Americans to reconsider travel to the island — have had significant effects for Cuba's economy and for its citizens.
With fewer employees on hand, the US Embassy in Havana halted visa processing, forcing Cubans who wish to visit the United States to seek visas through US embassies in other countries. The US is also expected to fall far short of granting the 20,000 immigrant visas to Cubans that have been allotted annually for decades.
Cuba and a number of analysts have said Donald Trump's Republican administration was using the alleged health incidents to justify unwinding a detente begun in 2014 by Democratic former US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro.
