The Embassy of the United States of America in Havana () is the
United States of America
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...
's
diplomatic mission
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually denotes ...
in
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
. On January 3, 1961,
U.S. President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...
severed relations following the
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...
of the 1950s. In 1977, U.S. President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
and Cuban leader
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...
signed an Interests Sections Agreement that permitted each government to operate from its former
embassy
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a Sovereign state, state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase ...
in
Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.[Washington D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...](_bl ...<br></span></div> and <div class=)
, which were called Interests Sections; they were prohibited from flying their respective flags.
Cuban President Raúl Castro
Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz ( ; ; born 3 June 1931) is a Cuban retired politician and general who served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most senior position in the One-par ...
and U.S. President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
restored full diplomatic connections on July 20, 2015.
The building housed the
United States Interests Section in Havana between 1977 and 2015, which operated under the auspices of the
Swiss Embassy (acting as
protecting power
A protecting power is a country that represents another sovereign state—the protected power—in a third country where the protected power lacks its own formal diplomatic representation (e.g., lacks an embassy or consulate). It is common fo ...
). On July 1, 2015, it was announced that with the resumption of diplomatic ties, the building resumed its role as the U.S. Embassy in Cuba on July 20, 2015.
After the emergence of
Havana syndrome in 2017, the United States withdrew most of the personnel from the embassy, so by July 2018 only 10 American diplomats were left to maintain the diplomatic service. The reduction of staffing also resulted in declining availability of embassy services. The
Biden Administration plans on expanding staff at the embassy to resume full scale processing of immigrant visa services beginning in early 2023. The embassy is led by
Chargé d'Affaires
A (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador. The term is Frenc ...
Benjamin G. Ziff.
History

The current
embassy
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a Sovereign state, state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase ...
was designed in the
Modernist
Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
-
Brutalist style by the architectural firm
Harrison & Abramovitz
Harrison & Abramovitz (also known as Harrison, Fouilhoux & Abramovitz; Harrison, Abramovitz, & Abbe; and Harrison, Abramovitz, & Harris) was an American architectural firm based in New York and active from 1941 through 1976. The firm was a partner ...
. The seven-story concrete and glass building was completed in 1953. The gardens were designed by Californian
landscape architect
A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manage ...
Thomas Dolliver Church. The contractor for the building was Jaime Alberto Mitrani, , also a professor of civil engineering at the University of Havana. The embassy complex is located directly on the Malecón facing the
José Martí Anti-Imperialist Platform and in proximity to the
Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
After the U.S. diplomatic mission became defunct in 1961, the building was not used by American personnel until the opening of the interests section on September 1, 1977. In 1963,
Prime Minister of Cuba
The prime minister of Cuba (), officially known as the president of the Council of Ministers () between 1976 and 2019, is the head of government of Cuba and the chairman of the Council of Ministers (cabinet). The prime minister is the third-hi ...
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...
ordered the confiscation of the complex, but action was never taken by the
Cuban government
Cuba is communist and has had a socialist political system since 1961 based on the "one state, one party" principle. Cuba is constitutionally defined as a single-party Marxist–Leninist socialist republic with semi-presidential powers. The pre ...
, though it still claimed right to the property in 2012.
During the period that the complex served as an interests section, the U.S. was represented by
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, and the Swiss maintained both the embassy complex and its effects. Renovations were completed on the complex in 1997.
The building was upgraded from an interests section and returned to its original role as the United States Embassy in Cuba, on July 20, 2015.
On August 14, 2015,
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the Presidency of Barack Obama#Administration, administration of Barac ...
officially reopened it; eight
congressional
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ad ...
lawmakers involved in the policy change attended, and the three Marines (Larry C. Morris, Mike East and Jim Tracy) who had lowered the
U.S. flag at the embassy 54 years earlier presented a new flag, which was then raised by
Marines assigned to the post.
In May 2022 a $28 million renovation project of the Embassy building was launched. The renovation project ran into several problems like visa issues for U.S. workers and technicians as well as supply shortages and fuel quality issues.
Health-related incidents
In August 2017, reports began surfacing that Americans posted at the embassy had been subjected to health-related incidents, dating back to late 2016.
Two dozen employees of the State Department reported experiencing what were referred to as "health attacks".
The State Department determined that the health problems may have been the result of an attack or else exposure to an as-yet-unknown device,
and did not believe the Cuban government is responsible.
[U.S. does not believe Cuba is behind sonic attacks on American diplomats]
McClatchy News Service
McClatchy Media Company, or simply McClatchy and MCC, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law. Originally based in Sacramento, California, United States, and known as The McClatchy Company, it b ...
, 26 September 2017 Affected individuals described mild brain damage similar to a concussion and symptoms such as temporary or permanent hearing loss, memory loss, and nausea.
Speculation has centered around a
sonic or ultrasonic weapon, but the scientific consensus is that the use of a sonic weapon is implausible.
Timothy Leighton, an expert in ultrasonics, has said "If you're talking about a ray-gun rifle knocking out someone with ultrasound they can't hear at a hundred metersthat's not going to happen".
The United States expelled two Cuban diplomats in response to the attacks;
the Cuban government offered to cooperate with the US in an investigation of the incidents. In September, the US State Department stated that it was removing non-emergency staff from the US embassy, and warned US citizens not to travel to Cuba. In October 2017, the ''Associated Press'' released what it claimed was a recording of the sound some embassy workers heard during the attacks. However, senior neurologists consulted by ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' suggested that the health incidents were probably
psychosomatic
Somatic symptom disorder, also known as somatoform disorder or somatization disorder, is chronic somatization. One or more chronic physical symptoms coincide with excessive and maladaptive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors connected to those symp ...
complaints, of the kind commonly known as
mass hysteria
Mass psychogenic illness (MPI), also called mass sociogenic illness, mass psychogenic disorder, epidemic hysteria or mass hysteria, involves the spread of illness symptoms through a population where there is no infectious agent responsible for c ...
. In December 2017, investigators discovered abnormalities in the victims' brains. The white matter of the brains showed physical changes which doctors believe could not have been caused by sound. They are now avoiding the term "sonic" to describe the attacks and there is growing skepticism it was caused by a sonic device; rather, it's possible that the sound heard by victims was a by-product of the brain damage. In a 2018 paper published in
JAMA
''JAMA'' (''The Journal of the American Medical Association'') is a peer-reviewed medical journal published 48 times a year by the American Medical Association. It publishes original research, reviews, and editorials covering all aspects of b ...
, a team of medical researchers at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
all but ruled out a sonic weapon and said they could not find the source of the ailments experienced by the embassy staff. They said that the report by the Associated Press claiming researchers had found damage to white matter in the brains of the patients was wrong and that there was no such damage. In January 2019 a study of a recording of the sound heard by embassy staff was released by Alexander Stubbs, a graduate student at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, and Fernando Montealegre-Zapata, a professor of sensory biology at the
University of Lincoln
The University of Lincoln is a public university, public research university in Lincoln, England, Lincoln, England, with origins dating back to 1861. It gained university status in 1992 and its present name in 2001. The main campus is in the hea ...
. The study found that the sound matched the mating song of the
Indies short-tailed cricket found around the Caribbean. The researchers did not examine the cause of the diplomats' ailments and did not rule out a sonic attack "at another point".
James Lewis, a former State Department official and intelligence expert, stated: "We know with 100% certainly that the embassies are under surveillance, and the technology being used could just be crude and over-powered"; he noted that health problems at the
US embassy in Moscow in the 1970s were thought to be linked to the use of
microwave surveillance devices.
See also
*
Embassy of Cuba in Washington, D.C.
*
Cuban Thaw
*
Havana syndrome
*
Moscow Signal
*
Yellow rain
Notes
References
External links
*
*
United States Department of State: CubaEmbassy of the United States in Cuba (Havana)
{{Authority control
Cuba–United States relations
Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.[United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...](_bl ...<br></span></div>
<div class=)
1953 establishments in Cuba
1961 disestablishments in Cuba
2015 establishments in Cuba
Brutalist architecture
21st-century architecture in Cuba
20th-century architecture in Cuba