Mike Waltz urged member states to reject the annual resolution. The General Assembly votes Wednesday for the 34th time.
UNITED NATIONS – US Ambassador Mike Waltz and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla clashed on the floor of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, during the annual debate on the US embargo on Cuba. The Assembly president briefly suspended the meeting.
Waltz was urging countries to reject the annual resolution calling for an end to the embargo and detailing alleged corruption by Cuba’s government when members of the Cuban delegation slammed their table and shouted for a point of order. Rodríguez walked down the aisle toward the president’s podium and yelled “You are a liar!” at Waltz, according to AP. Waltz asked whether he understood who he was dealing with and told him to back up, and the exchange continued as UN officials tried to restore order.
Assembly President Khalilur Rahman of Bangladesh asked delegations to let the speaker finish before raising points of order and reminded them that such points must be procedural, not about the substance of a speech, according to a summary of the session. He then suspended the meeting. When it resumed, Cuba was given the floor, and Rodríguez accused Waltz of lying and asked the president to call him to order, Fox News reported. Cuban delegates said the remarks insulted the dignity of the Assembly and of the Cuban people, according to the summary.
During his remarks, Waltz held up a photograph he said showed Fidel Castro wearing two Rolex watches, IBTimes reported. He blamed Cuba’s hardship on its own leaders and rejected the premise of the debate, according to Caribbean News Global. After the exchange, he urged ambassadors not to give Havana a propaganda victory and denied that the United States is threatening countries over their votes, according to the summary.
The row came a day before the Assembly votes on the resolution, the 34th such vote. Last year the text passed 165 to 7 with 12 abstentions, with the United States, Israel, Argentina, Hungary, Paraguay, North Macedonia and Ukraine voting against. The resolution is not legally binding, and only the US Congress can lift the embargo. The Trump administration has tightened the embargo this year, which the UN Resident Coordinator in Cuba, Francisco Pichon, said has led to an energy crisis and a risk of humanitarian collapse. A week earlier, Waltz had a similar exchange with Cuban official Ernesto Soberón Guzmán outside a US-hosted panel with Cuban dissidents, AP reported.
This report draws on information from the Associated Press, CBC News, Fox News, IBTimes and Caribbean News Global.