The Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla attempted to interrupt on two occasions this Tuesday the remarks of the United States Ambassador to the United Nations for Management and Reform, Jeffrey Bartos, as he denounced the blackouts in Cuba and the situation of the more than 800 political prisoners on the island. In both instances, the presidency of the General Assembly rejected the objections and allowed the American diplomat to continue his speech.
The tense exchange took place during an extraordinary session held in New York to decide whether the General Assembly would open a debate on the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
Bartos used his intervention to question the humanitarian situation on the island amid the new collapse of the National Electric Power System (SEN).
"Wherever there are a few generators running on that island, I assure you they are not powering the cells of political prisoners. They are not powering the refrigerators of Cuban families. They are not powering a hospital room filled with patients waiting for medicine, oxygen, or surgery," he stated.
The statements prompted an immediate reaction from Rodríguez Parrilla, who requested a point of order for the session president to call the American representative to order.
"I am surprised that the presidency of the assembly has not called the representative of the United States of America to order, who is making a substantive intervention that is in no way procedural. I ask that you call him to order," he claimed.
The presidency rejected the request and reminded the Cuban chancellor that Article 71 of the regulations prohibits the use of a point of order to debate the substance of the matter. The floor was then returned to Bartos.
Minutes later, Rodríguez interrupted the speech again with a second protest, which met the same fate.
Far from moderating his speech, Bartos took the floor again to intensify his criticisms of the Cuban regime.
"Do the more than 800 political prisoners in their cells have electricity? Do they have fans? Do they have phones? Do they have light to read, write, pray, or simply survive?" he asked before the Assembly.
The American diplomat asserted that the true embargo suffered by Cubans is not the one imposed by Washington, but rather the one that, in his view, is enforced by the regime itself.
"That is the true embargo on Cuba. It is not the one that Havana claims exists. It is the embargo that the regime imposes on its own people: on freedom of expression, faith, entrepreneurial initiative, dissent, political rights, and hope, and now, literally, on light," he stated.
Bartos also criticized the cost of the session, estimated at around $84,000, arguing that this amount could have fed 3,500 Cuban children for a month, purchased over 1,600 solar lanterns for families without electricity, or covered more than 400 years of the average annual salary of a worker on the island.
He also accused the Cuban government of calling the meeting "to generate content" instead of addressing the crisis the country is facing and urged the delegations to vote against opening the debate.
Despite Washington's opposition, the General Assembly approved the discussion with 136 votes in favor, nine against —including the United States, Argentina, and Israel— and 30 abstentions.
During his subsequent speech, Rodríguez Parrilla denounced what he described as a "multidimensional, unconventional war" against Cuba and accused the United States of maintaining an "energy blockade equivalent to a naval blockade" through sanctions and pressures on the ships supplying fuel to the island, he wrote on his X social media account.
The verbal confrontation occurred while Cuba is facing its third total collapse of the National Electric System in 2026. The blackout started on Monday, when generation dropped to create a deficit close to 2,230 MW against a demand of about 3,100 MW, causing a new nationwide power outage.
Tuesday's session had an extraordinary character and was convened at the request of the Cuban Government, separate from the traditional annual vote on the embargo scheduled for October 27.
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