The Cuban ambassador to the UN, Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, responded with irony this Friday to the American diplomat Jeff Bartos after the incident in which he was caught reading the book The Double Life of Fidel Castro during the speech by the Cuban foreign minister at the General Assembly, labeling the work as a "cheap novel" in a message posted on X.
"A free piece of advice for the U.S. Mission at the UN: if Jeff Bartos spent his time educating himself instead of reading cheap novels—and at least reading the General Assembly's rules and the UN delegate's manual—he might be able to advise his boss to make fewer missteps in front of the international community," wrote Soberón, accompanying the message with a photograph of the three official UN documents on the table of the Cuban delegation in the assembly hall.
The gesture by Bartos, the U.S. Representative for UN Management and Reform, occurred on October 28 while Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla was delivering his speech before the General Assembly during the annual debate on the embargo. The scene was a clear and deliberate political gesture intended to contrast the privileges of the Cuban elite with the official rhetoric of the regime.
The book in question was written by Juan Reinaldo Sánchez, former personal bodyguard of Fidel Castro for 17 years, along with French journalist Axel Gyldén, and published in English in 2015. The work describes a private life that is radically opposed to the austere image Castro projected in public: more than 20 residences, four yachts, a hunting reserve, and the exclusive use of Cayo Piedra, an island with a floating restaurant, a dolphinarium, and a dock for his personal boat, the Aquarama II, decorated with exotic woods from Angola.
The episode takes place during a week of heightened diplomatic tension between Cuba and the United States at the UN. On October 27, Ambassador Michael Waltz presented photographs to the Assembly of Rolex watches attributed to Fidel Castro—valued at around 40,000 dollars—and luxury accessories attributed to Miguel Díaz-Canel, including Hermès ties and Montblanc pens. The Cuban delegation put forth at least three points of order to interrupt the speech, but the Assembly's presidency rejected them and briefly suspended the session to instruct the delegates to return to their seats.
The next day, the General Assembly approved for the 34th consecutive year the resolution calling for an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba, but with the lowest support in 30 years: 130 votes in favor, 17 against, and 25 abstentions, compared to the 187 votes received in 2024 and 165 in 2025.
Among the countries that voted against were the United States, Israel, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Paraguay. Chile, Honduras, and Peru, which had supported the resolution the previous year, chose to abstain this time.
The U.S. diplomatic offensive in this cycle did not begin in the Assembly hall. On October 19, Cuban diplomats led by Soberón were involved in an altercation with Waltz outside a forum organized by the U.S. mission with Cuban dissidents and former political prisoners, shouting "liars!" and "down with the blockade!".
Bartos has been leading a systematic campaign at the UN against the privileges of the Cuban elite since August: in August, he reported to the Security Council that the military conglomerate GAESA and its subsidiaries would have amassed over $18 billion in foreign bank accounts, according to media reports, while the population suffers from food shortages and chronic blackouts.
Filed under: