The Trump administration expelled a Cuban diplomat from the United States on Wednesday, a day after a fiery shouting match between Cuba’s foreign minister and the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Michael Waltz, at the United Nations General Assembly.
The State Department said that it told Cuba’s mission to the U.N. that its first secretary, Richard Tur de la Concepción, was “not welcome” in the United States after the Cuban swatted at the phone of a U.S. official who was filming him at close range in the main U.N. hall.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Mr. Waltz accused Mr. Tur de la Concepción of “assaulting” the American. He later told Fox News that the Cuban official would “be on a flight back to Havana and out of this country today.”
The unusual rancor in the typically staid hall came at a moment of renewed tension between Cuba and the United States. The Trump administration is applying intense pressure on Cuba’s Communist government, hoping to force it into dramatic reforms and possibly even collapse.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently called on Cubans to collaborate with the C.I.A. against their government. And President Trump told voters at a recent campaign rally in Florida that U.S. forces may “take care of Cuba” on their way back from Iran.
The drama began on Tuesday, as Mr. Waltz spoke against a resolution calling for an end to the longtime U.S. economic embargo against the island.
Speaking from the podium, Mr. Waltz accused Cuba’s leaders of repression, corruption and self-enrichment. Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, and other members of the country’s delegation began pounding on their desks and demanding points of order. Eventually they approached the rostrum to within a few feet of Mr. Waltz, who interrupted his remarks to rebuke them.
“Back up! Back up!” Mr. Waltz barked. “This isn’t Havana. You’re not going to intimidate me. Do you understand who you’re dealing with? This is America!”
The Cubans soon returned to their desks after the presiding officer paused the proceedings. Mr. Rodríguez was then granted time to respond to Mr. Waltz, whom he accused of being a liar. At some point during or after that sequence, Mr. Tur de la Concepción had an altercation with a U.S. official that was captured on video and posted on X by Mr. Waltz.
The video showed Mr. Tur de la Concepción standing near the side of the rostrum, slapping away the phone of the American U.N. official.
When a U.N. staff member approached, Mr. Tur de la Concepción could be heard protesting that the American was “violating my personal space.” The staff member then escorted a compliant Mr. Tur de la Concepción from the area.
Mr. Waltz charged on X that Mr. Tur de la Concepción had been “trying to intimidate UN staff” into cutting off his microphone “to silence me after I exposed the regime for the world to see.”
In a letter to the U.N. secretary general’s office, Cuba’s U.N. ambassador formally protested the episode, insisting that the American who was filming had harassed Mr. Tur de la Concepción.
The resolution calling for an end to the U.S. embargo has become an annual tradition at the United Nations. Even many countries critical of Cuba oppose U.S. sanctions on the island, saying they unduly harm the Cuban people and have accomplished little over many decades.
The Trump administration aggressively lobbied against the nonbinding measure this year, limiting it to 130 votes in favor, down from 165 votes a year ago.
That total marked a 20-year low, according to the U.N.’s news office, which says support peaked at 191 votes in 2015 and 2017. Just 59 countries backed the resolution when it was first proposed in 1992.
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