A Cuban diplomat is being expelled from the United States after allegedly assaulting a member of US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz’s team during a heated confrontation at the UN.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has signed the paperwork ordering Richard Tur de la Concepcion, the first secretary of Cuba’s UN delegation, to leave the country, according to Mr Waltz.
“He’s gone. He is going to be on a plane to Havana within the next 24 hours,” Mr Waltz said in an interview on Tuesday evening.
The incident followed a clash between Mr Waltz and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla during a speech at the UN. Mr Waltz had criticised “corrupt Cuban elites” and displayed a photograph of former dictator Fidel Castro wearing two Rolex watches.
He then showed an image of Cuba’s current president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, and said: “According to the regime’s own statistics, that would pay for 55 years of an average Cuban wage.”
“It didn’t just start with Castro. This is the current Cuban President, also with a Rolex on,” he added.
Mr Rodriguez Parrilla approached the podium and called the US ambassador a liar. Mr Waltz responded: “Back up!”
Addressing the assembly, he said: “He doesn’t like hard truths. You can come and intimidate all you want.” Mr Waltz also said the Cuban minister would not intimidate him in the United States “like he tries to intimidate political prisoners”.
The confrontation then became physical when Mr Tur de la Concepcion allegedly lunged at Mr Waltz’s spokesman, JP Freire, and tried to take the iPhone Mr Freire was using to record the exchange.
Mr Waltz accused the Cuban delegate of shoving and attempting to assault “one of our American diplomats”.
“You lay a hand on an American here in the United States, President Trump, Secretary Rubio and myself, we’re not gonna stand for it,” he said.
Video of the incident showed Mr Tur de la Concepcion approaching Mr Freire and reaching for the phone. He was later escorted from the chamber and appeared to place his hand over the camera once more as he left.
Mr Freire said the Cuban delegate had used “the same intimidation” to cut off Mr Waltz’s microphone during an earlier occasion. “Under the Castro’s communist regime, it’s always the regime’s turn,” he added.
David Ramirez Alvarez, a diplomat at the Cuban embassy, later described Mr Waltz as “a disgrace to what it means to be a diplomat” in a post on X.
“Cuba will not stay idly as this person eviscerates the principles of the United Nations,” Mr Alvarez wrote.
The confrontation comes as relations between Washington and Havana deteriorate, with the Trump administration increasing pressure on Cuba’s communist government.
