Tension between the U.S. and Cuba was on full display at the United Nations on Tuesday as the Trump administration’s envoy to the body, Ambassador Mike Waltz, and Cuba’s foreign minister engaged in a shouting match on the floor of the General Assembly.
During the U.N.’s annual debate on the U.S. blockade against Cuba, Waltz took the podium and began delivering a speech that was hotly critical of the Cuban regime.
Shortly after Waltz began his remarks, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla and the rest of the Cuban delegation began challenging him from the audience — shouting and gesturing as the president of the assembly banged his gavel and fruitlessly asked them to quiet down.
“I hope everyone, Mr. President, is listening to the delegation right now,” Waltz said with a smile. “Imagine what happens when someone ask these questions in Havana, not in a room of ambassadors and cameras! Imagine what happens to those people if this is the intimidation and disruption that we see!”
Rodríguez Parrilla and Waltz traded more remarks, with Waltz declaring “This is America, this is the United Nations, this isn’t your communist dictatorship. You can’t silence me or you cannot silence my colleagues!
Rodríguez Parrilla, whose comments could not be clearly heard on a U.N. livestream of the meeting, approached the front of the hall.
Waltz yelled, “Mr. President, this individual needs to back away from this podium. He’s not going to intimidate me in the United States of America! I’m the representative of the United States of America! Back up!”
At that point, the assembly president suspended the meeting. After recounting the U.N.’s rules for the event, the president then gave Rodríguez Parrilla a chance to issue a point of order on the condition he limit his grievances to procedure rather the substance of Waltz’s remarks.
Rodríguez Parrilla returned to his seat and used the opportunity to speak to protest Waltz’s claims, accusing him of “grossly lying.”
Waltz finished his speech without major incident, ending by urging the chamber to vote against the resolution under consideration on Wednesday. Waltz finished his remarks without major incident — urging the chamber to vote against the resolution under consideration on Wednesday.
Following the incident, Rodríguez Parrilla doubled down on X, writing that Waltz “with his arrogance and hubris, forgets that he is at the United Nations, not at the US National Security Council, nor in a Green Berets unit, nor in a Signal group, where he has repeatedly shown his incompetence and incapacity.”
Waltz, a former Green Beret, came under scrutiny last year while serving as national security adviser for inadvertently inviting a journalist to a Signal chat with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and other top national security officials discussing details of the strike on the Houthis in Yemen.
President Donald Trump nominated Waltz to the U.N. post at the same time he announced Secretary of State Marco Rubio would also serve as national security adviser.
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