Delegates of the United States and Cuba became embroiled in a heated exchange during a debate in the UN General Assembly on the long-running US economic embargo on Cuba.
As the situation got out of hand, General Assembly president and Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman temporarily suspended the session.
The incident took place on Tuesday, 27 October, during the General Assembly’s annual debate on the US embargo on Cuba. According to US broadcaster ABC News, the tension began when the US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, opened his speech by accusing Cuba’s socialist government of corruption and of those in power hoarding wealth.
In protest, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla and members of his delegation began shouting and banging on the table to object during the speech. Khalilur Rahman repeatedly struck his gavel and called on the delegation to calm down, but the situation did not settle.
Waltz then said: “I hope, Mr President, that everyone is now listening to the delegation.” Criticising Cuba’s political situation, he said people should imagine what would happen to anyone who raised such questions in Havana.
The exchange between Waltz and the Cuban foreign minister grew more heated. “This is America, this is the United Nations. This is not your communist dictatorship. You will not silence me or my colleagues,” Waltz said.
At one point Rodríguez Parrilla moved towards the front of the hall. Waltz told him to move away from the podium, shouting that nobody could intimidate him in the United States and that he was the representative of the United States.
Khalilur Rahman finally suspended the session temporarily to bring the situation under control. He then explained the rules of procedure and gave the Cuban foreign minister the chance to raise a point of order, on condition that he did not discuss the substance of Waltz’s speech.
Back in his seat, Rodríguez Parrilla protested against Waltz’s remarks, calling the US ambassador’s accusations “shameless lies”.
Waltz later finished his speech without further major disruption. He urged UN member states to vote against the resolution condemning the US embargo on Cuba, which was due to be voted on on Wednesday.
After the incident, Rodríguez Parrilla criticised Waltz in a post on the social media platform X. He wrote that, out of arrogance and conceit, Waltz had forgotten that he was at the UN and not on the US National Security Council, nor in a unit of the US Army special forces known as the Green Berets, nor in a Signal group. Waltz had shown his incompetence and inability in all these, the Cuban foreign minister said.
Waltz is a former member of the US Army’s Green Beret special forces. He was also caught up in controversy while serving as national security adviser.
Last year it emerged that a journalist had been added by mistake to a Signal group set up to discuss strikes on the Houthis in Yemen. The group included US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice-President JD Vance and other top national security officials.
US President Donald Trump nominated Waltz as US ambassador to the UN and at the same time announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would also serve as national security adviser.
A resolution condemning the decades-long US economic embargo on Cuba is put to the UN General Assembly every year. This year’s debate again brought the two countries’ dispute over Washington’s embargo policy into the open.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report