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News · CubaThe US expels a Cuban diplomat from the UN after a scuffle over a phone
Marco Rubio signed the immediate expulsion of Richard Tur de la Concepción, from Cuba's mission to the UN. According to Washington, he tried to grab the phone of a US diplomat who was filming. Cuba protested in a letter.
Translated from the original Spanish article. Read in Spanish
News published on October 29, 2026. The situation may have changed since then.
The fight between Cuba and the United States at the UN has a second chapter. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed the immediate expulsion of Richard Tur de la Concepción, first secretary of Cuba's mission to the United Nations.
What happened
It was announced by the US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz. According to his account, Tur de la Concepción attacked US diplomat J. P. Freire and tried to take his phone.
Freire was filming members of the Cuban delegation who, according to Washington, were pressuring UN staff to cut the microphones during the US speech.
A country can expel a foreign diplomat without giving reasons: it is enough to declare them persona non grata.
A session that ended in shouting
It all happened during the yearly vote against the embargo on Cuba. Waltz showed photos of luxury watches that, he said, are linked to Fidel Castro and Miguel Díaz-Canel, and of the Castro family's private home on Cayo Piedra.
Cuba's foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, protested loudly, banged the table and called Waltz a liar. The ambassador replied that he was "at the UN and not in a communist dictatorship". The president of the Assembly had to suspend the session for a while.
Cuba's response
The Cuban mission, through its ambassador Ernesto Soberón, sent a letter of protest to the UN Secretary-General, accusing the US official of harassment.
Even so, the resolution against the embargo passed: 130 countries voted for it, fewer than in other years.
To learn how that vote went, read [what happened at the UN between Cuba and the US](onu-cuba-embargo.html).
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Sources (in Spanish)
- La expulsión, el forcejeo y la carta de protesta: ErnestoMiami · Cuba hoy (28 de octubre de 2026).
- La votación de 130 países: OnCuba News.
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons under free licenses; the author and license are shown under each image.
