Havana, Cuba.- The head of the United States Office at the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, hit out Monday at Washington for indefinitely maintaining reduced the staff of its Embassy in Havana, an act -he said- is politically motivated.

The official told the press that this measure, announced last Friday by the State Department, has no relationship whatsoever with the safety and security of US personnel in the Cuban capital.

Late in September 2017, the United States decided to withdraw most of its diplomatic staff from Cuba, alleging highly questioned health incidents with accredited diplomats in Havana.

Fernández de Cossío reiterated that there is no evidence of any attack or any other kind of acts against US personnel.

‘The Department of State has using again the term attacks, when it knows that there have not been any attacks nor has there been any deliberate act against its diplomats in Cuba. It is a term whose use implies bad intention and does not correspond to the vocabulary or the content of official exchanges,’ he pointed out.

According to Fernandez de Cossio, the decision of Washington has a particular impact on the consular services on which tens of thousands of citizens depend, who are now forced to incur in additional expenses as they have to travel to third countries in quest for temporary visas or that of immigrants.

‘In this way the United States has imposed financial punishment on tens of thousands of people, as well as anguish and insecurity in their relations with their relatives and close friends. It is a measure with a humanitarian cost for which the government of the United States is responsible,’ he denounced.

Fernandez de Cossio called the renewal of the alert that recommends US travelers reconsidering visits to Cuba, also issued on March 2, another hostile and defamatory action.

The US government has enough evidence that Cuba is a safe country for diplomats from that country and from any part of the world, as it is for Cuban citizens, foreign residents and the millions of visitors that arrive from all parts of the world, he expressed.