President Joe Biden signed the Havana Act into law Friday, legislation aimed to address hundreds of mysterious illnesses contracted by U.S. personnel over the past several years.
The mysterious “Havana Syndrome” dates back to 2016, when a well-known series of cases began to impact personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba. Victims reported a sudden onset of a high-pitched grating noise, with subsequent symptoms including headaches, nausea and memory loss. Around a dozen Canadian Embassy workers in Havana also reported falling ill in 2016 and 2017.
The Havana Act will “ensure we are doing our utmost to provide for U.S. Government personnel who have experienced anomalous health incidents,” Biden wrote in a statement on Friday.
“Civil servants, intelligence officers, diplomats, and military personnel all around the world have been affected by anomalous health incidents,” Biden added. “Some are struggling with debilitating brain injuries that have curtailed their careers of service to our nation. Addressing these incidents has been a top priority for my Administration.”
The bill, which passed both the House and Senate with unanimous votes, authorizes the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department and other federal agencies to provide payments to individuals impacted by the Havana Syndrome to receive treatment for brain injuries.
As of late September, there were around 200 reported cases under investigation, half of them involving intelligence personnel.
While the cases were first detected in Cuba, similar, unexplained health ailments have since been reported by Americans serving in other countries, including Germany, Austria, Russia and China. There have been a number of theories proposed by scientists and researchers in the past several years, including targeted radiofrequency or microwave radiation, exposure to toxic chemicals like pesticides and even the chirps of a Caribbean species of cricket.
A 2020 study from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine stated that while directed pulsed radiofrequency is the “most plausible mechanism” to explain the symptoms, the group could not “rule out other possible mechanisms and considers it likely that a multiplicity of factors explains some cases and the differences between others.”
The Biden administration is facing new pressure to resolve the mystery as the number of reported cases of possible attacks has sharply grown. But scientists and government officials aren’t yet certain about who might have been behind any attacks, if the symptoms could have been caused inadvertently by surveillance equipment — or if the incidents were actually attacks.
Biden on Friday pledged that his administration would “get to the bottom of these incidents, including to determine the cause and who is responsible.”
While administration officials have speculated that Russia may be involved — a suggestion Moscow has denied — scientists aren’t yet certain about who might have been behind any attacks — or if the incidents were actually attacks.
There have been a number of theories proposed by scientists and researchers in the past several years, including targeted radiofrequency or microwave radiation, exposure to toxic chemicals like pesticides and even the chirps of a Caribbean species of cricket.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.