A Cuban diplomat involved in a confrontation with US officials at the United Nations is set to be expelled from the country.
The clash took place on Tuesday between members of US Ambassador Mike Waltz’s team and representatives of Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla after Waltz criticized what he called “corrupt Cuban elites.”
The dispute turned physical when Richard Tur de la Concepcion, the first secretary of Cuba’s UN delegation, lunged at Waltz’s spokesman, JP Freire, and tried to take the iPhone Freire was using to record the encounter.
Later that evening, Waltz told Fox News that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had signed the paperwork ordering Tur de la Concepcion to leave the United States.
“He’s gone. He is going to be on a plane to Havana within the next 24 hours,” Waltz said on the network.
The US ambassador accused Tur de la Concepcion 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,” Waltz said.
The confrontation began after Waltz held up a photograph of late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro wearing two Rolex watches, which were estimated to be worth about $40,000. He then displayed a photograph of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel to the audience.
US Ambassador Mike Waltz revealed on Tuesday that a Cuban diplomat accused of assaulting an American diplomat will be expelled from the United States
Waltz said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had signed the paperwork to expel Richard Tur de la Concepcion, the first secretary of Cuba’s UN delegation
Tur de la Concepcion, pictured, lunged at Waltz’s spokesman, JP Freire, and tried to take the iPhone Freire was using to record
The announcement followed Tuesday’s confrontation at the United Nations between Waltz and members of Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla’s team
“According to the regime’s own statistics, that would pay for 55 years of an average Cuban wage,” the US ambassador said. “It didn’t just start with Castro. This is the current Cuban President, also with a Rolex on.”
Rodriguez Parrilla then moved forcefully toward the podium and accused Waltz of lying.
The US envoy immediately responded: “Back up!”
Turning to the visibly startled assembly, Waltz continued: “He doesn’t like hard truths. You can come and intimidate all you want.”
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Waltz said Parrilla would not intimidate him in the United States, “like he tries to intimidate political prisoners.”
Video later showed Tur de la Concepcion appearing to reach for Freire’s phone.
Freire told Our News Outlet that the delegate who confronted him had used “the same intimidation” against clerks to cut off Waltz’s microphone during a previous incident.
The Waltz spokesman added: “Under the Castro’s communist regime, it’s always the regime’s turn.”
Rodriguez Parrilla moved aggressively toward the podium and called Waltz a liar after the US ambassador criticized “corrupt Cuban elites”
Waltz is seen speaking during the heated exchange at the UN
The diplomatic confrontation unfolded as relations between Washington and Havana continue to deteriorate
David Ramirez Alvarez, a Cuban Embassy diplomat, criticized Waltz on X after the exchange, calling him “a disgrace to what it means to be a diplomat.”
“The man talk, walks and acts like a character from the film Idiocracy,” Alvarez wrote. “Cuba will not stay idly as this person eviscerates the principles of the United Nations.”
The diplomatic spectacle came as relations between Washington and Havana rapidly deteriorated, with the Trump administration stepping up pressure on the communist-run island.
President Trump has openly raised the possibility of US military intervention and repeatedly warned that Cuba’s dictatorship is living on borrowed time.
At a recent rally in Florida, Trump taunted the Cuban government by suggesting that US naval vessels returning from regional deployments could stop near the island’s coast.
“We’ll do a little stopover,” Trump told the cheering crowd. “We’ll have one of those beautiful ships stop about 50 yards off the coast… and then we’re going to send Marco Rubio in to finish up the deal.”
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has begun preparations for potential action, according to the report.
Rubio has also publicly urged Cuban reformers and dissidents to work with US intelligence channels in an effort to dismantle the communist system from within.
Rubio wrote on X, asking them to “seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discrete partnership with the CIA.”
