The US government paid nearly $3 million in compensation to victims of "Havana Syndrome". The BBC reports that these are the first payments to US intelligence agencies personnel in connection with the mysterious neurological illness that American and Canadian diplomats and their families have reported since 2016.
A 2024 joint investigation by The Insider, CBS 60 Minutes, and Germany's Der Spiegel linked the syndrome to personnel of the Russian GRU military unit 29155. The investigators found Havana Syndrome symptoms during the same periods and at the same locations that were visited by Unit 29155 personnel.
There is no direct evidence of an "acoustic weapon" being deployed by GRU officers, per the investigation. But the pattern maps onto Unit 29155's documented history of poisonings, assassinations, and sabotage across Europe.
Payments imply that Havana Syndrome requires compensation
The US intelligence community concluded in 2024 that it was "very unlikely" a foreign state used a new type of weapon or its prototype to harm American diplomatic personnel and their families. But now, the payments imply that Havana Syndrome is a real and treatable injury requiring compensation.
GRU Unit 29155 is Russia's most notorious unit for sabotage and assassination. UK intelligence attributed to Unit 29155 the 2018 Novichok poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, the 2014 Vrbetice ammunition depot explosions in Czechia that killed two, the 2015 poisoning of Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev, and the WhisperGate cyberattacks on Ukraine in 2022. Investigator Christo Grozev estimated the unit's assassination subdivision comprises about 70 Russian short-term undercover agents.
Havana Syndrome went public in 2016 in Cuba
Havana Syndrome first became publicly known in 2016, when American diplomats in Cuba's capital reported feeling ill and hearing piercing sounds at night. Similar cases were subsequently registered globally, from Washington to China.
In 2017, the US government withdrew more than half its staff from the Havana embassy after numerous complaints of dizziness, nausea, and difficulty concentrating. Canada also received similar reports from its Havana embassy staff, leading to a sharp reduction of Canadian personnel at the mission in 2019.
Speculation about a "mysterious sound weapon" used by a foreign state has persisted through the eight years of documented cases. Multiple hypotheses have been advanced: pulsed microwave radiation, sonic devices, pesticide exposure, and mass psychogenic illness.
