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CubaBrief: Cuban artist targeted by Havana reported 10/18 sonic attack. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine identified attacks using a type of radiation that includes microwaves
Two important stories related to Cuba are intersecting in the news. Repression against artists advocating for freedom of expression, the freedom of their colleague Denis Solis, and an important report indicating that sonic attacks were most likely the result of a “directed, pulsed radio frequency energy,” of which microwaves are an example. The two stories intersect in the person of Tania Bruguera.
Tania Bruguera, at the Instar headquarters, accompanied by other artists who were present at the meeting on November 27 with Vice Minister of Culture Fernando Rojas. (14ymedio)
Cuban artist Tania Bruguera has been detained three times within the span of a week, and is currently under house arrest and being threatened with "charges of crimes against the state, she says, which could carry a sentence of life imprisonment or even death." Ms. Bruguera's "telephone line and all possible access to the internet were cut off." Both phone lines and internet access are controlled by the government. She has been under extensive surveillance because she has been supporting the San Isidro Movement, and was involved in the meeting with the Minister of Culture on November 27th demanding freedom of expression in Cuba. However, she has been a target of the dictatorship for some time.
On October 18, 2020 at 1:19am Cuban artist Tania Bruguera posted on her Facebook account the following message translated in English below:
"Does anyone know this noise? It is like a cricket, but electronic and very loud, it can't be natural, it activates every minute or so and lasts one minute, minute and sixteen seconds, minute and twenty-one seconds. I have a headache and an earache that cannot be tolerated. The recording cannot capture the actual volume. In reality the sound is very high and penetrating."
There was no news about this occurrence in the English speaking press, and little coverage in the Spanish speaking press. Babalu Blog reported on it in English, citing the article in Diario de Cuba that quoted Tania's sister, Deborah Bruguera: “We have confirmed the sound recorded by my sister is identical to what the workers at the American embassy in Havana heard and according to the investigation has been designated some type of sonic weapon. There is no doubt now…”
On October 10, 2020, ten days prior to the "sonic attack", Ms Bruguera was the target of an act of repudiation organized by Castro's state security. In between these two attacks the Cuban artist participated in a panel discussion over Zoom that is available now online titled "Blurring the Lines Between Art and Activism: A conversation with Tania Bruguera and Claire Bishop" organized by the Center for the Humanities.
CubaBrief reported on the sonic attack at the time, and remains concerned for her wellbeing. The regime in Havana continues to deny that any attack has occurred, and that the sound associated is non-existent or crickets. However, the sound has been recorded, and can be listened to below.
On December 5th Ana Swanson and Edward Wong of The New York Times reported that "the most probable cause of a series of mysterious afflictions that sickened American spies and diplomats abroad in the past several years was radiofrequency energy, a type of radiation that includes microwaves, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has concluded in a report." Swanson and Wong also mention in their article that Canadians had also been targeted in the Havana attacks.
On October 25, 2020 the Canadian publication Global News reported that "Canadian officials warned staff bound for Cuba to stay silent on ‘Havana syndrome’" claiming that it was to "avoid mass hysteria."
The use of sound as a weapon against Cuban nationals has a long history. On November 17, 2017 at an event on Capitol Hill, former Cuban political prisoners testified about abuses suffered in Cuban prisons. The Daily Caller highlighted the testimony of two political prisoners.
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