UN Set for Annual Embargo Vote as U.S.-Cuba Clash Erupts Inside General Assembly

The United Nations General Assembly is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a resolution condemning the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba, an annual measure put to the body's 193 member states for 34 consecutive years. The Trump administration has campaigned openly against the measure this year. Last year's tally was 165 in favor, 7 against and 12 abstentions.

The vote arrives amid an open rupture in diplomacy between Washington and Havana. On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez exchanged shouts on the General Assembly floor while the embargo resolution was being debated. Rodríguez approached Waltz's podium and called him a liar, then sought a point of order from the session's presiding official. U.N. security and staff moved in to separate the two.

Waltz said from the podium: "This individual needs to back away from this podium. He's not going to intimidate me in the United States of America." He added, "You understand who you're dealing with? This is America. Back up."

Rodríguez wrote afterward on X that Waltz was speaking at the U.N. and not at a White House national security meeting. He called the U.S. remarks "crude lies" and described Washington's actions as an attempt to justify economic pressure on Cuba. A week earlier, Waltz had a similar confrontation with Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, Cuba's U.N. envoy, outside a U.S.-hosted panel that included Cuban dissidents and former prisoners.

The U.S. first imposed the embargo in 1960, after Fidel Castro's revolution toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista and nationalized property held by U.S. citizens and corporations. Trump announced in late January that tariffs would apply to any country selling or providing oil to Cuba. The warning has cut fuel deliveries to the island, producing power outages that affect cooking, water supply, and internet and telephone service.

Trump raised the possibility of military action last week, saying U.S. warships could stop in Cuba on their return from the Iran war. Cuba is a 193-member body vote; resolutions of this kind carry no legal force but record the assembly's view.

The General Assembly is scheduled to take up the resolution Wednesday. It is not yet clear whether the administration's campaign will draw more opposition or abstentions from Western allies than prior years. The embargo remains in place.