The United States ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, was at the center of a tense confrontation with the Cuban delegation during an extraordinary session of the General Assembly convened by the regime to discuss the U.S. embargo. He took the opportunity to denounce repression, display photographs of political prisoners, and declare that "the Cuban people have the right to freedom."
The session was held while Cuba was experiencing a new total blackout across the island, the third this year in 2026, which began on Monday when electricity generation dropped to 935 MW against a demand of 3,100 MW.
Waltz began his speech by reversing the regime's central argument: "There has been a lot of talk about the blockade today, and indeed there is a blockade in front of all of us: the blockade that the Cuban regime ruthlessly imposes on its own people, decade after decade."
He pointed out the paradox of the blackout with direct irony: "Sadly, Cuba is once again in the dark. 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's complex."
Before I could continue, the Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla interrupted with a point of order, calling the ambassador a "liar" and asserting, "This is the United Nations General Assembly, it's not a green beret camp."
The presidency of the Assembly rejected the interruption and returned the floor to Waltz, who replied: "The truth is offensive, and the truth is not a lack of respect." Rodríguez attempted to interrupt a second time with the same result.
Waltz exhibited photos and names of Cuban political prisoners before the Assembly: Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, a visual artist in a maximum security prison whose five-year sentence ends next Thursday; Maykel Osorbo, a musician and co-author of "Patria y Vida," sentenced to nine years; the rapper Miguel Castillo Pérez; the poet Duanes León, with a 14-year sentence; and the brothers Jorge and Martín Perdomo, whose detention had been condemned by the UN, which called for their release.
"They are not violent, they do not carry weapons. What they bring are flowers, and they write poetry and songs, and that is why the regime tries to eliminate them by putting them in prison," Waltz stated, recalling that over 800 people were imprisoned following the protests on July 11, 2021, the fifth anniversary of which is this month.
The ambassador dismantled the argument of the embargo by pointing out that assistance from Canada, China, the European Union, Spain, and the UN itself reaches the island without impediment, and that the U.S. contributes more than 100 million dollars annually in aid distributed alongside the Vatican and the Catholic Church.
He also accused GAESA, the Cuban army unit that controls half of the economy, of managing a trust fund of 18 billion dollars without "a single cent going to the Cuban people," and denounced that thousands of Cubans are sent to fight in Ukraine, with their salaries going "directly to the regime."
He was unequivocal about the purpose of the session: "Blaming the United States is the only economic plan that Havana has. It's all they have left."
The Assembly approved the opening of the debate with 136 votes in favor, nine against, and 30 abstentions, a figure that is significantly lower than the 165 votes Cuba received in October 2025, the worst record in more than three decades.
Waltz concluded with a direct appeal to the delegations: "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."
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