The United States Ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, issued a direct challenge to the Cuban regime this Wednesday during the annual debate on the embargo: the fuel that Washington sends to Cuba must reach the people and the farmers, not the luxury yachts of the Castro family.
"The regime in Havana hates that the U.S. is the largest supplier of fuel to Cuba's private sector. We prefer that the fuel reach the Cuban people directly rather than the luxury yacht of the Castro family and their private kitchens," Waltz stated before the General Assembly.
The diplomat supported his argument with concrete figures: in the first eight months of 2026, American companies exported goods to Cuba worth 876 million dollars, of which approximately 231 million corresponded to fuel intended exclusively for the Cuban private sector.
"In the first eight months of this year, U.S. companies have exported nearly one billion dollars in goods—876 million, to be exact—to Cuba, including a quarter billion in fuel. The U.S. is now the largest fuel supplier to the private sector. That is what infuriates Havana and this communist regime: the term 'private sector,'" Waltz stated.
Those fuel exports were virtually nonexistent until less than a year ago: in all of 2025, they totaled only 310,000 dollars. The growth began in February 2026, when the Trump administration authorized operations with private Cuban companies. Sales to the Cuban state and its enterprises remain prohibited.
The intervention on Wednesday came a day after Waltz presented to the delegates photographs of the luxuries of the Cuban elite: Fidel Castro's Rolex watches valued at $40,000, Hermès ties and Montblanc pens belonging to Díaz-Canel, a mansion in Varadero covering 14,000 square meters, the private island Cayo Piedra, and a 50-meter yacht.
The debate escalated into one of the most chaotic episodes in the recent history of the UN. The Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla physically advanced towards the podium where Waltz was speaking, forcing the president of the Assembly to temporarily suspend the session.
Additionally, the first secretary of the Cuban delegation, Richard Tur de la Concepción, was accused of attempting to snatch the phone from Waltz's spokesperson while he was recording the confrontation.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed the deportation order for Tur, who was required to leave the U.S. within 24 hours. Waltz was emphatic: "If you lay a hand on an American diplomat in this organization, there will be consequences."
In his response to the Cuban chancellor, captured by CSPAN's feed, Waltz questioned the hypocrisy of the regime: "Why do the rulers of Cuba come to this organization to talk about the suffering of the Cuban people, and in the height of hypocrisy, enjoy luxury watches, Rolex, yachts, mansions, and even their own private islands, while the Cuban people go hungry and live in darkness?"
Rodríguez Parrilla did not answer any of those questions during his speech of over thirty minutes, as noted by Waltz, and spent the time blaming Washington.
The result of the vote reflected the regime's increasing isolation: the annual resolution calling for an end to the embargo received 130 votes in favor, 17 against, and 25 abstentions, the worst historical result for Havana. In 2024, that same resolution had garnered 187 votes in favor and only two against.
Filed under: