The United States ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, issued a stern challenge to the international community on Tuesday, urging UN member countries to stop supporting the Cuban regime and stand with the island's population.
"Stand with the Cuban people, do not side with the regime that has broken this country. You cannot do both at the same time. The time has come to make a decision," he stated during an extraordinary session of the General Assembly convened at the request of Havana to discuss the U.S. embargo.
His intervention coincided with the third national collapse of the electrical system recorded in Cuba in 2026, a circumstance that the diplomat used to challenge the official narrative of the regime.
"Much has been said about the blockade today, and it indeed exists: the blockade that the Cuban regime ruthlessly imposes on its own people, decade after decade," he stated.
Waltz recalled that millions of Cubans remained without electricity while the session was taking place and contrasted that situation with the conditions of the ruling elite.
"What a surprise: there always seems to be light and electricity for the regime, for the dictatorship. Right now, there is electricity at the Castro family's complex; there, there is definitely light," he stated.
The ambassador questioned how, amid the energy crisis, hospitals are facing fuel shortages while the power structures maintain essential services.
The political prisoners, the protagonists of their intervention
A significant portion of the speech was dedicated to denouncing the situation of Cuban political prisoners.
Before the General Assembly, he mentioned the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, whose sentence concludes on the upcoming July 9; the musician Fernando Almadévez Rivera; the rapper Miguel Castillo Pérez; the poet Duanes León Tovero, sentenced to 14 years in prison; and the brothers Jorge and Nadir Martín Perdomo.
"They are not violent. They do not have weapons. What they carry are flowers and they write poetry and songs. And that is why the regime tries to eliminate them by putting them in prison," he declared.
He also recalled that this month marks five years since the protests on July 11, 2021, after which hundreds of demonstrators were imprisoned. According to the citation, there are currently 775 political prisoners in Cuba, of which 338 were convicted due to the July 11 protests.
"The only embargo is the one imposed by the regime."
The U.S. representative rejected the official narrative regarding the embargo and stated that Cuba receives assistance from Canada, China, Spain, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations itself, in addition to over 100 million dollars annually in humanitarian aid provided by the United States in coordination with the Vatican and the Catholic Church.
"There is no U.S. blockade. The only embargo is the guillotine that the regime holds over the heads of its own citizens," he stated.
He also accused GAESA, the business conglomerate controlled by the Armed Forces, of managing assets estimated at 18 billion dollars without those resources benefiting the population.
He also reported that the regime withholds part of the salaries of professionals sent abroad and accused the authorities of sending Cubans to fight in Ukraine.
Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez attempted to interrupt the speech
During the intervention, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla interrupted Waltz on two occasions with points of order, calling him a "liar" and asserting that the United Nations headquarters "is not a green beret camp."
The presidency of the General Assembly rejected both objections by reminding that the regulations do not allow the use of that mechanism to debate the content of a speech.
Upon regaining his words, Waltz replied: “The truth is offensive, and the truth is not a disrespect”.
At the end of the session, the General Assembly approved the opening of the debate requested by Cuba with 136 votes in favor, nine against, and 30 abstentions, a support considerably lower than the 165 votes obtained by Havana in the annual vote on the embargo held in October 2025.
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