U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz and Cuba’s foreign affairs minister got into a shouting match in the U.N. General Assembly Hall.
The viral bout came after Waltz accused Cuba of benefiting from forced labor and of seizing “businesses, farms, factories, homes, and the savings of generations of hardworking Cubans” to enrich its leaders—pointing to a private island and Rolex collections as proof.
As Cuba’s delegation vocally objected, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla got up and approached the podium, where he accused Waltz of lying and called for a point of order.
Waltz, a former Florida representative best known for his role in Signalgate, said Parrilla just did not like what he was saying.
“He doesn’t like hard truths,” Waltz said. “You can come and intimidate all you want.”
“Mr. President, this individual needs to back away from this podium,” Waltz said. “He’s not going to intimidate me in the United States of America like he tries to intimidate political prisoners. I’m the representative of the United States of America. Back up!”
Parrilla yelled back: “You are a liar!”
Waltz continued, “I know that you don’t like to hear these hard truths, but I am speaking for the Cuban people. And ever since 1959, this government in Havana would have you believe that everything in Cuba has just disappeared; that they are the victim; that it’s someone else’s fault.”
The meeting was ultimately suspended.
Waltz posted videos of the confrontation on X, clearly proud of the exchange.
“One of the Cuban regime’s ‘diplomats’ tried to intimidate UN staff into cutting our microphones as I exposed the regime for the world to see,” he wrote in one post. “When one of my American diplomats noticed what was happening, that same regime ‘diplomat’ tried to intimidate him, too.”
That video appears to show the Cuban diplomat swatting at the phone of his American counterpart, claiming his personal space was being “violated” by being filmed.
Later, Cuban diplomat David Ramirez Alvarez sharply criticized Waltz.
“The U.S. Permanent Representative Mike Waltz is a disgrace to what it means to be a diplomat,” he wrote on X. “The man talks, walks, and acts like a character from the film Idiocracy. Cuba will not stay idly as this person eviscerates the principles of the United Nations.”
Tuesday’s confrontation came ahead of a U.N. vote on whether to condemn the U.S. embargo on Cuba, which has been in place since 1962. Parrilla has claimed the U.S. has pressured member nations not to condemn it.
The annual resolution, which is not legally binding, has had broad support since 1992. Last year, 165 nations voted in favor, seven against, and 12 abstained.
