During a debate on the colonial case of Puerto Rico at the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization, the Cuban representative tried to silence one of the petitioners and received the response: "You can't do that here."
The incident occurred last Thursday and was shared on the X account of the petitioner told to be silent, named Mario Solano, identified as Extended Congressional Delegate for Puerto Rico.
He was the alternate permanent representative of Cuba to the United Nations, Yusnier Romero Puentes, who requested the floor before the Assembly's leadership to ask Solano to be silent following his accusation of communism.
"I have requested the floor to ask you to call the petitioner to order. We are discussing the resolution on Puerto Rico in the Decolonization Committee, we are not referring to any political model or ideological model in these types of discussions. Therefore, I ask you to call him to order and if he does not comply, you should withdraw the floor from him." These were Romero Puentes' request to the board, led by the representative from Santa Lucia, Menissa Rambaly.
In the shared video, the disbelief of many representatives can be seen in the face of the demands made by the Cuban side, which, furthermore, was one of the parties that presented this resolution, along with Bolivia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Syria, and Russia.
Solano, for his part, replied to the Cuban representative that he did not need to tell him what he had to say in favor of Puerto Rico.
"In favor of Puerto Rico, I can say whatever I want, because I am in a nation where speech is completely free," he stated.
And he continued referring specifically to Cuba. "Over there in those countries where they don't let their people speak and repress them, well, here that can't be done," he concluded.
Although this was considered the only incident during the session, the resolution presented was approved by consensus on the 42nd occasion, reaffirming Puerto Rico's inalienable right to self-determination and independence.
The resolution recognizes Puerto Rico as a "Latin American and Caribbean nation" and takes note of the repression against independence movements. Their expressions of support were received from allied groups of Cuba and where the regime is present, such as the Group of Friends of the UN Charter, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and the Non-Aligned Movement.
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