The United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, launched a strong attack against the Cuban regime on Tuesday during an extraordinary session of the General Assembly convened at the request of Havana, summarizing the island's government's strategy in one sentence: "Blaming the United States is the only economic plan that Havana has; it is all they have left."
The session was debating the initiation of a formal debate on the U.S. embargo, but Waltz turned the argument around from the very start: “There has been much talk of the blockade today, and indeed there is a blockade before all of us: the relentless blockade that the Cuban regime exercises against its own people, decade after decade.”
The speech arrived while Cuba was experiencing its third complete electrical system collapse in 2026, which began on Monday with a generation deficit of 2,230 MW against a demand of 3,100 MW. Waltz did not overlook the irony: "What a surprise: there always seems to be light and electricity for the regime, for the dictatorship. Right now, there is electricity in the Castro family complex; there's definitely light there."
The ambassador asked before the Assembly how it is possible that there is no fuel for hospitals but there is for the Castro family's private jet, and how the Cuban president can afford an Hermès tie, a Rolex watch, or a Montblanc pen.
He also reported that GAESA, the military conglomerate that controls nearly 70% of the Cuban economy, manages a trust fund of 18 billion dollars from which "not a penny goes to the Cuban people."
Waltz specifically named several political prisoners before the delegates from around the world: Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, imprisoned for “artistic expression”; Fernando Almadévez Rivera, a musician imprisoned for writing songs that call for freedom; Miguel Castillo Pérez, a rapper in maximum security prison; Duanes León Tovero, a poet sentenced to 14 years; and the brothers Jorge and Martín Perdomo, whose detention has been condemned by the UN itself. “They are not violent, they carry no weapons. What they bring are flowers, and they write poetry and songs, and for that reason the regime tries to eliminate them by putting them in jail,” he stated.
The Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla interrupted the American diplomat on two occasions with points of order that the Assembly's presidency rejected in both instances.
In the first intervention, Rodríguez called Waltz a "liar" and told him that the UN "is not a green beret camp," remarks that were recorded in the minutes of the meeting.
Waltz also questioned the narrative of the "total blockade," pointing out that ships leave ports in Florida with 500 million dollars in goods bound for Cuba, and that countries such as China, Russia, Spain, Mexico, and the United Nations itself have sent humanitarian assistance to the island without any hindrance.
"There is no American blockade. The only embargo is the guillotine that the regime holds over the heads of its own citizens," he asserted.
He also reported that thousands of Cubans are forced to fight in Ukraine, with their salaries going "directly to the regime," and labeled the sending of doctors abroad as a "slave trade" in which the government keeps their wages and threatens the families of the workers.
Despite the opposition from Washington, the Assembly approved the start of the debate with 136 votes in favor, nine against, and 30 abstentions, although this result is significantly lower than the 165 votes Cuba received in the annual vote of October 2025, the worst record in over three decades.
Waltz concluded his remarks with a direct appeal to the delegates: “The world does not have to help the Cuban government hide its greed, its corruption, and its incompetence. The time has come to make a decision.”
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