The Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla was at the center of a tense exchange on Tuesday with the United States representative to the United Nations General Assembly, Michael Waltz, who described the Havana regime as "illegitimate and brutal" during the annual debate on the resolution against the U.S. embargo.
The session, which usually unfolds with predictable and diplomatic speeches, took a harsh turn this time when the American delegate accused the Cuban government of supporting terrorist organizations, trafficking weapons, and allowing the dispatch of mercenaries to the war in Ukraine.
“This is an illegitimate and brutal regime that attempts to portray itself as a victim while conspiring with our adversaries,” said Waltz, who also urged UN member countries to “stop appeasing the regime” with their votes.
The U.S. representative, who maintained a firm tone despite interruptions from the Assembly president, Germany's Annalena Baerbock, stated that "there is no blockade," recalling that the United States exported 500 million dollars in food, medicines, and humanitarian goods to Cuba in 2024.
"Explain to me how this is a blockade," said Waltz, emphasizing that the embargo does not prevent the regime from trading with the rest of the world, but rather seeks to hold it accountable for human rights violations and the trafficking of medical professionals abroad.
"This is not a Signal group."
The words of the U.S. representative prompted an immediate reaction from Bruno Rodríguez, who requested to speak "for the sake of order" and interrupted the speech to denounce what he described as a "rude and arrogant expression" against the presidency of the Assembly.
"The representative of the United States not only lies by straying from the topic, but expresses himself with ignorance and rudeness. This is the General Assembly of the UN, not a Signal group or the House of Representatives," stated the Cuban Foreign Minister.
The chair of the debate briefly gave the floor to Havana but then requested the U.S. representative to continue his remarks. Waltz, far from backing down, replied with a statement that echoed throughout the assembly:
"I know perfectly well where we are, and this is not an illegitimate communist legislature in Havana. This is a place where we speak with facts."
The exchange further strained the atmosphere in the room, at a time when the Cuban regime is facing one of its worst diplomatic crises in decades, accused of recruiting citizens to fight in Ukraine alongside Russian forces and of keeping over 700 political prisoners in inhumane conditions.
A context of increasing pressure
The incident occurs just a week after Rodríguez Parrilla held a lengthy press conference in Havana to accuse Washington of applying "brutal pressure" on Latin American and European governments ahead of the vote on October 29 regarding the resolution against the embargo.
During that appearance, the Cuban chancellor denounced an alleged "campaign of blackmail and disinformation" by the United States, following reports from international media and intelligence agencies documenting the participation of thousands of Cubans in the war in Ukraine on behalf of the Kremlin.
Diplomatic sources confirmed that the U.S. State Department has intensified contacts with allied countries to urge them to vote against Havana or abstain, in an unprecedented strategy over three decades of virtually unanimous votes against the embargo.
The administration of Donald Trump, back in the White House, seeks to break that historical consensus, arguing that Cuba is now "a state sponsor of trafficking and a military ally of Russia."
The end of a story
The clash between Waltz and Rodríguez not only reflected the decline of bilateral dialogue but also the exhaustion of the old narrative of the “blocked victim” that the Castro regime has used for over half a century to justify its economic failure.
While the chancellor insists on talking about a “genocidal siege,” official data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that Cuba continues to import food, medicine, and U.S. machinery, even through private intermediaries.
For many analysts, the regime's nervousness is less about the embargo and more about the fear of losing its international political shield.
A fracture in the majority support within the UN would leave Díaz-Canel's government more isolated than ever, amidst an internal economic collapse and the loss of backing from traditional allies such as Venezuela and Nicaragua.
"This time, the regime does not control the narrative," warn observers. "And if there is anything that Castroism fears more than sanctions, it is the silence of its old friends when the time to vote comes."
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