The UN General Assembly experienced a tense confrontation this Tuesday during the debate on the annual resolution presented by the Cuban regime since 1992 to demand an end to the U.S. embargo, which will be the 34th edition of this non-binding diplomatic exercise among the 193 member states.
The debate will continue until Wednesday, when the vote is scheduled. The resolution, officially titled "Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial, and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States of America Against Cuba" —a name that reflects the regime's terminology— has been approved almost every year by a wide majority, albeit without any legal effect: only the U.S. Congress has the authority to lift the embargo.
Why was there a tense debate at the UN today?
At the UN General Assembly, a tense confrontation occurred during the debate, when the foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla and other members of the Cuban delegation stood up from their seats and approached the podium to interrupt the ambassador of the United States, Michael Waltz (Mike Waltz).
The president of the General Assembly threatened to suspend the session due to the interruptions and the exchanged accusations. Additionally, he requested Rodríguez to return to his seat.
Waltz rejected the interruptions and stated that he would not be intimidated. The Cuban delegation put forward at least three motions for order, all of which were denied, while Rodríguez publicly accused the American diplomat of being a liar.
During his speech, Waltz accused the Cuban ruling elite of enriching themselves while the population faces serious economic hardships, displaying photographs of luxury items and properties attributed to Fidel Castro and his family.
He also referenced a study by the Miami Herald on GAESA, which reportedly accumulated 18 billion dollars in profits and 14 billion in cash.
Support for Cuba in the debate on the blockade diminishes
International support for Cuba's position has steadily declined: from 187 votes in favor in 2024 to 165 in October 2025 —the worst result since 2010— with seven countries voting against: the U.S., Israel, Argentina, Paraguay, Ukraine, North Macedonia, and Hungary.
The most alarming signal for Havana came in July 2026, when a procedural vote to authorize an extraordinary debate on the embargo received just 136 votes in favor, with 30 abstentions and nine against, including Costa Rica, which had closed its embassy in Havana in March of that year.
The Trump administration has launched an unprecedented diplomatic offensive to undermine support for Cuba. Miguel Díaz-Canel himself acknowledged in his radio program that it is "the most intense diplomatic and communication offensive like never before," and admitted that "there are people who will change their vote because they are intimidated by the pressures from the United States."
Among the countries that could change their position are Germany, which has voted in favor continuously since 2002, and whose Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs indicated that the position "is not yet decided."
Canada, which abstained in July and maintains its position "under consideration"; and several Caribbean countries, where Trinidad and Tobago has already broken its historical pattern by abstaining in the procedural vote.
Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla accused Secretary of State Marco Rubio of "blackmailing" heads of state and denounced that a Latin American government was acting under instructions from Washington, without identifying it. Rubio directly contacted Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to urge him to align with Washington.
The U.S. offensive included a forum held on October 20 at the UN headquarters, organized by Ambassador Mike Waltz and titled "Cuba Libre: The Oppression That Havana Hides," featuring the released political prisoner José Daniel Ferrer and artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.
Cuban diplomats staged a repudiation act in the halls of the UN, shouting "terrorists" and "out of the UN" at the panelists.
Before the Assembly, the regime will argue that the embargo caused an impact of 8.056 billion dollars between March 2025 and February 2026, and accumulated losses of over 178.7 billion over six decades.
These are estimates from the Cuban government, not independently audited, that contrast with data cited by U.S. diplomacy. In 2025, the U.S. exported over 810 million dollars in products to Cuba, and the regime spent eleven times more in 2024 on sustaining its tourism industry—controlled by the military conglomerate GAESA—than on health and education combined.
The U.S. chargé d'affaires in Barbados, Karin Sullivan, wrote an opinion piece to the Caribbean governments arguing that “why are the lights going out? Because the incompetent regime puts itself first.”
The historical high for support of the resolution was 191 votes in 2016, during the thaw initiated by Barack Obama, when the U.S. and Israel abstained for the first time. Wednesday's vote could set a new historical low and become the most accurate gauge of the increasing isolation of the Cuban dictatorship in international forums.
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