On October 19, 2026, United States and Cuban diplomats clashed at the United Nations during a U.S.-hosted panel featuring Cuban dissidents ahead of an annual U.N. General Assembly vote on the U.S. economic embargo. U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz accused Havana of human rights abuses, while Cuban Ambassador Ernesto Soberón Guzmán condemned U.S. sanctions and fuel blockades as collective punishment amid Cuba's economic and energy crises.
Protests by Cuban diplomats at UN panel
- ▪On October 19, 2026, United States diplomats and Cuban representatives clashed at the United Nations in New York during a U.S.-hosted panel featuring Cuban dissidents and former political prisoners.
- ▪Cuban Ambassador to the U.N. Ernesto Soberón Guzmán and other Cuban diplomats shouted at U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz as Waltz departed the October 19, 2026 U.N. event.
- ▪Cuban Ambassador Ernesto Soberón Guzmán gathered diplomats outside the U.S. meeting on October 19, 2026, condemning the event as a sham and calling the United States an international delinquent.
US allegations at UN panel
- ▪U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz accused Cuban diplomats at the U.N. of harassing, shouting at, and filming former political prisoners on October 19, 2026.
- ▪At the October 19, 2026 U.N. event, U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz presented explicit footage of Cuban citizens being detained and heard testimony from former prisoners detailing torture.
UN General Assembly votes on embargo
- ▪The U.N. General Assembly has passed a non-binding resolution condemning the U.S. embargo against Cuba every year since 1992, spanning 34 consecutive years.
- ▪The United Nations General Assembly is scheduled to vote on October 27-28, 2026, on a non-binding resolution calling for an end to the United States economic embargo on Cuba.
- ▪In the 2025 U.N. General Assembly vote on the Cuban embargo resolution, the measure passed 165-7 with 12 abstentions, with Argentina, Ukraine, and Hungary voting against it for the first time.
US embargo and pressure operations
- ▪The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has intensified pressure on Cuba through an oil blockade intended to force changes to Cuba's political system.
- ▪The United States has maintained its trade embargo against Cuba since 1960 following Fidel Castro's revolution and the nationalization of U.S.-owned properties.
- ▪Following the January 2026 military removal of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the Donald Trump administration stepped up its pressure operations against Cuba.
- ▪Only the United States Congress possesses the legal authority to lift the Cold War-era economic embargo on Cuba.
Economic and energy crisis in Cuba
- ▪The economic and energy crisis in Cuba since 2020 has sparked public protests and prompted hundreds of thousands of Cuban citizens to migrate to the United States.
- ▪Last month, Cuba's electrical grid suffered a total failure, leaving millions of residents across the island nation without electric power.
- ▪Cuba is undergoing its worst economic crisis in decades, characterized by shrinking gross domestic product, high inflation, and shortages of food and basic goods.
- ▪Fuel cutoffs resulting from U.S. sanctions have caused widespread power blackouts in Cuba, disrupting cooking, water supply, and telephone services.
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