A member of the Cuban delegation attempted to snatch the phone from J.P. Freire, spokesperson for the U.S. ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz, while he was recording the confrontation that erupted this Tuesday during the General Assembly session, according to a video shared by Waltz on his X account.
The incident occurred during the annual debate on the U.S. embargo against Cuba, during which Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla got up from his seat and physically approached the podium while Waltz presented to the delegates the failure of communism on the island.
In the video, the Cuban official says: "You're invading my personal space. It's not allowed." At the end of the recording, the regime official is removed from that part of the room.
Waltz himself reported on X that the aggression was part of a series of intimidation tactics: first, a Cuban "diplomat" pressured UN staff to cut the microphones while he was exposing the regime's corruption; when one of his American colleagues alerted him, that same official tried to intimidate him as well.
"One of the 'diplomats' of the Cuban regime tried to intimidate UN staff to cut off our microphones while I was exposing the regime to the world," Waltz wrote on his account.
The confrontation on the podium was no less tense. Rodríguez accused Waltz of lying as he approached the platform, to which the ambassador shouted back, "Get away!" and "You won't intimidate me or the United States of America, just as you try to intimidate political prisoners."
The presidency of the General Assembly, led by Khalilur Rahman, briefly suspended the session and demanded that the Cuban Foreign Minister return to his seat: “Please return to your seat.”
Far from backing down, Waltz warned Rodríguez from the podium: "Mr. Chancellor, this is how it’s going to work: every time you interrupt me, I will continue explaining just how corrupt this regime is, and I will do so more slowly."
The Cuban chancellor responded from the microphone: "Mr. Waltz, you are lying again. I wish you better performance in your future political positions."
During his intervention, Waltz displayed photographs of two Rolex watches belonging to dictator Fidel Castro valued at about 40,000 dollars today —equivalent, in his own words, to 55 years of the average Cuban salary— as well as luxury items from President Miguel Díaz-Canel. He also presented images of properties owned by the Castro family: a beach retreat in Varadero measuring 14,000 square meters, a private island called Cayo Piedra with a floating restaurant and a dolphin lagoon, and a 50-meter yacht sailing through the Mediterranean.
The ambassador also cited a report from the Miami Herald stating that GAESA, the military conglomerate of the regime, accumulated 18 billion dollars in profits and 14 billion in cash in secret accounts.
This episode marks the culmination of a series of confrontations between both delegations throughout 2026. In July, Rodríguez attempted to silence the American representative Jeffrey Bartos with two points of order during an extraordinary session, both of which were rejected. In mid-October, Cuban diplomats staged a repudiation act in the corridors of the UN against former political prisoners José Daniel Ferrer and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara during the "Cuba Libre" forum organized by the American mission.
Waltz concluded his speech with a direct call to the member countries: “Colleagues, these thugs are asking for your vote. Do not give Havana another propaganda victory. Do not vote for the mistreatment of the Cuban people.”
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