The Department of State confirmed this Thursday that Richard Tur de la Concepción, the first secretary of the Permanent Mission of Cuba to the UN, has left U.S. territory after being declared persona non grata by Washington, according to Martí Noticias.
"We have made it clear to the Cuban mission that this individual is not welcome in the United States and, as a result, has left the country," stated a spokesperson for the organization.
The State Department went further in its statement and harshly criticized the regime: "Members of the incompetent Cuban communist regime revealed their true nature through their tactics of intimidation and oppression. These tactics will not work and will not be tolerated."
The expulsion was triggered by an incident that occurred on Tuesday, October 27 during the annual debate of the General Assembly on the U.S. embargo against Cuba, when Tur attempted to snatch the phone from J.P. Freire, the head of Strategic Communications of the U.S. mission to the UN, and swatted at him multiple times while he was recording the session.
The ambassador Mike Waltz announced the measure that same night on Fox News' Hannity show, following the signing by Secretary of State Marco Rubio: "He's leaving. He will be on a plane to Havana within the next 24 hours. If you lay a hand on an American here in the United States, President Trump, Secretary Rubio, and I will not tolerate it."
The next day, Waltz reiterated the warning before the General Assembly itself: "If you lay a hand on an American diplomat in this organization, there will be consequences."
Freire also publicly responded to the altercation. "His own team was recording throughout the room. It's strange to think that he considered I was violating his privacy," he wrote on X, adding: "While the Cuban mission attempts to silence criticism of the abuse and wealth of the Castro regime, they want to take advantage of American rights that they don't even understand."
The Cuban mission presented a contrasting version. In a letter dated October 27, Ambassador Ernesto Soberón accused Freire of harassing Tur, invading his personal space, and continuing to record him despite his objections, and requested the intervention of the UN security offices.
Tur's profile adds a greater dimension to the case. According to an investigation by Martí Noticias, relatives and former diplomat Joel Suárez confirmed that the official has ties to Cuban intelligence services, and that his father, Ricardo Tur Novo, operated under diplomatic cover in Bolivia, Paraguay, and Jamaica using the alias "Roger."
The scandal also compromised his candidacy for the Advisory Commission on Administrative and Budgetary Matters of the UN for the 2027-2029 period, for which Cuba had nominated him and whose election was scheduled for November 2026.
The incident is part of an escalation of confrontations between both delegations throughout this year. On October 19, Cuban diplomats led by Soberón staged a repudiation act in the hallways of the UN against former political prisoners José Daniel Ferrer and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. The foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla left his seat and moved toward the podium while Waltz was speaking on October 27, forcing the Assembly president, Khalilur Rahman, to briefly suspend the session.
The annual resolution against the embargo was approved on Wednesday with only 130 votes in favor, 17 against, and 25 abstentions, marking the most unfavorable result for Cuba since 1992, compared to the 187 votes obtained in 2024 and the 165 in 2025.
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