A shouting match at the UN has now led to a Cuban diplomat being shown the door. The US expelled Richard Tur de la Concepción, a first secretary at Cuba's UN mission, after an "extraordinary exchange" Tuesday during the General Assembly's annual debate on Washington's economic embargo of the island nation, reports the Wall Street Journal. Tur is accused of striking a US delegate's phone as it recorded him, an incident seen on video later posted by US Ambassador Mike Waltz. Waltz called it an attempted assault, per CNN.
The dust-up came as Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla and his team loudly disrupted Waltz's speech, in which the ambassador claimed late Cuban leader Fidel Castro had put thousands of people in "concentration camps." Rodríguez Parrilla, who would go on to accuse Waltz of blatantly lying, then approached the rostrum to address General Assembly President Khalilur Rahman, though Waltz accused him of trying "to intimidate me ... like he tries to intimidate political prisoners."
The disruption reached such a point that the meeting was temporarily suspended, WTVJ reports. As this was happening, a Waltz spokesperson allegedly began filming Tur de la Concepción, with Cuba's ambassador to the UN later accusing the rep of harassing the diplomat and violating his personal space. The State Department says Tur has left the country and is no longer welcome. The fracas underscores sharply worsening US-Cuba ties under President Trump, even as 130 UN members backed a resolution urging Washington to end the embargo.
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