The State Department has expelled two Cuban diplomats from the United States over safety concerns of American officials who reported experiencing unexplained “physical symptoms” while working in Cuba, according to reports.
State Department officials said the Cuban officials within the Embassy in Washington were asked to leave the country on May 23, after U.S. personnel stationed on the island “reported incidents which have caused a variety of physical symptoms,” according to a Washington Post report published Wednesday.
{mosads}The unexplained symptoms ultimately led the U.S. officials to leave Cuba.
The officials would not elaborate on what physical symptoms the officials exhibited nor specify when the Cubans departed the U.S., the newspaper reported.
The first unexplained incident reportedly occurred late in 2016, one official told the Post.
The continuous symptoms reportedly prompted the officials to leave, which first led the State Department to begin looking into the matter.
Both State Department officials told the newspaper that the facts surrounding the incidents are not yet complete.
CBS Radio News, which first reported the incidents, said federal investigators are looking into the claims.
Cuban officials have pledged to investigate the incidents as well and take appropriate action, the officials told the Post.
It is not unprecedented or uncommon for American officials in Cuba to be harassed, the Post reported, pointing to the start of the practice emerging under the island’s communist government in the 1970s.