WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 When Americans started falling ill last year in Havana, the victims of eerie, invisible attacks, investigators seized on a key question: Who had the motive to drive the United States and Cuba apart?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nearly a year later, the U.S. hasn\u2019t unraveled the riddle. But whoever is to blame, the plot appears to be working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Less than three years have passed since the longtime enemies began an ambitious diplomatic experiment, restoring formal ties despite lingering resentments and potent political opposition on both sides of the Florida Straits. Despite all that, a delicate detente took hold in 2015 and has slowly but steadily progressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now the experiment has been abruptly upended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each country will soon have but a fraction of the diplomatic presence in the other\u2019s capitals that they\u2019ve had in recent years. The United States, fearful about diplomats\u2019 safety, will leave behind a skeleton staff for emergencies. Cuba, ordered to withdraw 15 diplomats, will maintain roughly a dozen in Washington \u2014 far fewer, even, than worked in its \u201cinterests section\u201d that took the place of an embassy for decades when the countries didn\u2019t officially speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For some 2 million Cuban-Americans and their relatives still in the homeland, the distance suddenly seems much wider than the mere 90 miles of water separating the nations. Visa processing will grind to a halt for the 20,000 Cubans who seek permission each year to emigrate to the U.S. and thousands more applying to visit family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe only thing I can do is wait,\u201d said Carlos Sierra, a 31-year-old restaurant worker in Havana. His hopes for a family re-unification visa to join his parents in the U.S. have been dashed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what other choice did Washington have?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and other U.S. policymakers struggled deeply with how to respond to the attacks, Trump administration officials said. They weren\u2019t authorized to discuss internal deliberations and requested anonymity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was reluctance to punish Cuba when the U.S. still hasn\u2019t blamed anyone. There were also concerns that if some entity \u2014 perhaps Russia, or a faction of Cuba\u2019s government \u2014 is trying to drive a wedge between Washington and Havana, cutting back diplomatic ties would play directly into their hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet Americans in Cuba these days may not be safe \u2014 at least as far as U.S. security officials can tell. Twenty-two Americans are confirmed to have suffered medical ailments from the attacks, and the figure keeps growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Loath to succumb to the still-nameless aggressor, most U.S. diplomats in Havana argued against pulling out, as did their union in Washington and much of the State Department ranks, officials said. But leaving Americans in harm\u2019s way presented a moral dilemma that, ultimately, the administration decided it could not stomach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a wrenching decision,\u201d said Mark Feierstein, the former White House official who shepherded the detente with Cuba in the final years of the Obama administration. \u201cThere\u2019s clearly some entity out there that wants to damage relations between the two countries, and unfortunately, they\u2019ve been successful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Americans, the issue carries emotional baggage and fraught politics stemming from the saga over Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans were killed in 2012. In the years after, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her aides were pilloried over accusations they knew Americans were unsafe in Benghazi and failed to act in time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For President Raul Castro\u2019s government, the crisis has posed an entirely different challenge: If the attacks are still a mystery, how can Cuba exonerate itself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Havana felt it had shown good faith by letting the FBI fly down and operate on its soil for what Cuba said was the first time in more than 50 years. The United States has praised its willingness to cooperate, but also has avoided sharing sensitive details about the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first, Cuba\u2019s communist government was judicious in its public comments about the matter, letting Washington do the talking. But then the U.S. started suggesting Havana bore some responsibility \u2014 if not culpability \u2014 because Americans had been harmed on Cuban soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United States has never explained what, if any, steps Castro\u2019s government could but won\u2019t take to stop the attacks, considering no culprit and no device have been identified. Rather, the U.S. has merely said it\u2019s Cuba\u2019s responsibility to keep diplomats safe, and left it at that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So on Tuesday, hours after the U.S. expelled its diplomats, Cuba finally went on offense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a lengthy statement read to reporters in Havana, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez detailed everything his country has requested to help Cuban authorities investigate: immediate notification of attacks, access to injured Americans and their doctors, and technical data about what potential weapon might be at play, to name a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His argument: If Cuba is kept in the dark, how can it be expected to solve the crime?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Supporters of warmer U.S.-Cuba ties argue the Trump administration ultimately bowed to political pressure from opponents of rapprochement, such as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Many of the same U.S. lawmakers had tried unsuccessfully earlier this year to persuade Trump to revert back to the chillier state of affairs before 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we never solve this mystery, then what?\u201d said James Williams, president of the advocacy group Engage Cuba. \u201cIt\u2019s not serious about solving the issue, it\u2019s leveraging an opportunity to advance a political goal they couldn\u2019t achieve on their own. That\u2019s not what this should be about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Associated Press writer Andrea Rodriguez in Havana contributed.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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