[2][3][4] 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).

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 complex is located directly on the Malecón facing the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Platform and in proximity to the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

[12] In 1963, Prime Minister of Cuba Fidel Castro ordered the confiscation of the complex, but action was never taken by the Cuban government, though it still claimed right to the property in 2012.

[19] In August 2017, reports began surfacing that Americans posted at the embassy had been subjected to health-related incidents, dating back to late 2016.

[21] 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,[22] and did not believe the Cuban government is responsible.

[25][26] 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 meters – that's not going to happen".

[30] However, senior neurologists consulted by The Guardian suggested that the health incidents were probably psychosomatic complaints, of the kind commonly known as mass hysteria.

[32] In a 2018 paper published in JAMA, a team of medical researchers at the University of Pennsylvania all but ruled out a sonic weapon and said they could not find the source of the ailments experienced by the embassy staff.