A Cuban official accused of shoving and attempting to assault an American diplomat who was filming a heated exchange involving Mike Waltz and Havana’s foreign minister at the United Nations will be expelled from the United States, the US ambassador has confirmed.
Cuban media identified the official as Richard Tur de la Concepción, who appeared to reach for the cellphone of US diplomat J.P. Freire as Freire recorded Waltz’s confrontation with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla inside the UN General Assembly Hall on Tuesday.
Tur de la Concepción, the first secretary of Cuba’s Permanent Mission to the UN, pointed a finger at Freire and pushed the phone away before accusing the American diplomat of “violating [his] personal space,” according to footage posted by Waltz.
Speaking on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Waltz said the Cuban representative had “shoved and tried to assault” a member of the US delegation. He also confirmed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had signed the documents ordering the official’s removal from the country.
“He’s gone. He’s going to be on a plane to Havana within the next 24 hours. You lay a hand on an American here in the United States, President Trump, Secretary Rubio, and myself – we’re not going to stand for it.”
Waltz said Cuba’s delegation was attempting to turn the UN into a “propaganda platform to paint themselves as the victim,” with the confrontation unfolding just one day before the General Assembly was due to vote on a resolution criticizing the US economic embargo against Cuba.
“They spew lies, they spew propaganda,” Waltz said. “They blame the blockade, which doesn’t exist. By the way, that would be a ring of navy ships that doesn’t allow anything in or out. It’s an absolute lie.”
Waltz said his fiery address, in which he accused Havana of profiting from the forced labor of Cuban citizens, provoked a “meltdown” within the Cuban delegation. He described the speech as an effort to challenge communist propaganda with what he called “hard truths.”
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“They didn’t like hearing those hard truths,” he told Sean Hannity. “They’re used to hearing the propaganda in communist Havana, but under the administration, we’re going to show the world the depredation and the failings of communism.”
Waltz also condemned what he called the privilege of Cuba’s ruling class. To underscore his argument, he displayed a photograph of former dictator Fidel Castro wearing two Rolex watches, which he said would be worth roughly $40,000 in today’s money.
“According to the regime’s own statistics, that would pay for 55 years of an average Cuban wage,” Waltz said.
The former Florida congressman then produced an image of Cuba’s current president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, wearing a Rolex.
“It didn’t just start with Castro. This is the current Cuban president, also with a Rolex on,” he said.
Waltz argued that the Castro family enjoyed extraordinary wealth and comfort while ordinary Cubans faced deep economic hardship.
“The Castro regime has profited at the expense of the Cuban people with luxury cars, expensive watches and a private island resort,” Waltz wrote on X.
“As I shared this with the world, regime thugs rushed the stage to interrupt my speech. They can intimidate their own people in Cuba but think again about trying that nonsense in the United States of America.”
Rodríguez Parrilla, meanwhile, accused Washington of spreading lies in a “crude and permanent manner” and described Waltz’s conduct as an expression of “arrogance and hubris.”
“The US government, with its crude lies at the General Assembly of the United Nations, launched a new desperate attempt to justify the economic aggression against Cuba and its criminal energy siege,” the official claimed on X.
The UN will vote on a resolution condemning the economic embargo on the Caribbean island Wednesday in what has become a yearly tradition for the past 34 years.
The first vote took place in 1992 – with 59 countries voting in favor. Last year, 165 countries supported the motion.