Cuban government officials are used to getting their way. If you say something they don't like about the revolution or the current leadership, you can be arrested, beaten and imprisoned for as long as they see fit. There are currently more than 1,200 political prisoners in Cuba, many of them have been there since 2021 when there were mass arrests in response to protests.

Today, Cuba's representatives at the United Nations reacted badly to something that U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz had to say about their nation. 

The broadside against “corrupt Cuban elites” at one point featured Waltz displaying a photo of late dictator Fidel Castro wearing two Rolex watches worth around $40,000 in today’s money.

“According to the regime’s own statistics, that would pay for 55 years of an average Cuban wage,” Waltz noted, before showing a photo of Miguel Díaz-Canel and saying, “It didn’t just start with Castro. This is the current Cuban president, also with a Rolex on.”

The former Florida congressman highlighted reports on the Cuban military-run conglomerate GAESA amassing $18 billion in assets that have enriched regime elites, showing further photos of them flaunting their wealth.

“It’s not just watches, colleagues, it’s also a vast real estate empire,” Waltz continued, sharing images of the Castro family’s 14,000-square-foot seaside retreat in Varadero with marble floors, a sauna and a private dock, as well as the ex-ruling family’s compound made “from cedar imported from the Brazilian Amazon rainforest.”

The Cuban delegation responded by banging on their table and, when that failed, Cuba's foreign minister marched down the aisle to confront Waltz directly. From that point it turned into a shouting match with Waltz demanding the ambassador sit down and stop trying to intimidate him.

Waltz called out the Havana government for profiting off of the forced labor of its own citizens sent to concentration camps while using confiscated “businesses, farms, factories, homes and the savings of generations of hardworking Cubans” to line the pockets of its leaders.

As Waltz spoke, Cuba’s delegation banged on the table near their seats to express disapproval before Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla charged toward the rostrum and accused Waltz of lying, causing the US envoy to shout: “Back up!”...

“He’s not going to intimidate me in the United States of America — like he tries to intimidate political prisoners,” said Waltz, raising his voice at Parrilla as UN officials tried to restore order.

Here's video of the scene at the height of the shouting.

This happened just a minute or so into Waltz' speech. While this showdown was happening another member of the Cuban delegation tried to grab a camera belonging to the U.S. delegation.

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After that disruption, the Cuban ambassador was given a moment to insult Waltz before Waltz was allowed to resume his speech.

The representative of Cuba: “muchas gracias. thank you very much, mr. president. on the basis of article 71 of the rules of procedure of the general assembly, i request you to call to order the permanent representative of the united states, who is not only lying, grossly, but is beneath the dignity of this forum and member states. he is offending the dignity of the people and government of cuba. mr. waltz is lying yet again, and i wish him a better future in other functions, but in the united nations and in the security council, your performance is severely wanting. please inform yourself much more, much better, of the rules of procedure.”

Waltz resumed and presented a slideshow of sorts showing some of the wealth amassed by Cuba's leaders. The Cuban delegation began banging the table again and demanded Waltz stop insulting Cuba. But Waltz resumed and promised to keep talking about Cuban hypocrisy and corruption no matter how many times they interrupted him. Here are some of the images he held up:

Waltz is of course correct about Havana stealing and stashing billions of dollars for its leadership while regular people have nothing.

Under Raúl Castro, the nonagenarian retired general who is still the ultimate authority on the island, the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces have expanded their hold on the country’s economic lifeline through an umbrella group known as GAESA, short for Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. Although Cubans know little about it, GAESA controls dozens of profitable businesses, including a huge chunk of tourism, most of the island’s gas stations and supermarkets, the money-transfer business, currency exchange agencies and the operations at a special development zone on Mariel Bay.

The Cuban government has made every effort to obscure the role of its armed forces in what experts say is the country’s worst economic collapse since its independence, exclusively blaming U.S. sanctions instead. But the wealth amassed by the Cuban military at the expense of the Cuban people is a secret no more.

The Herald reported in December on a rare leak of secret military documents revealing that Gaviota, a GAESA tourism subsidiary that handles 55% of all hotel rooms in the country, was sitting on a $4.3 billion stash. It was the first time financial data from GAESA’s secret account books were made public.

Now, a larger trove of secret accounting documents obtained by the Herald, including several financial statements from 2023 and 2024, shows that the figure was just a fraction of the money in GAESA’s coffers.

Regarding Cuba's outburst over talking about this, Waltz made a great point. If Cuba is willing to melt down like this at the UN, imagine how they behave behind closed doors.

Waltz's entire speech with the interruptions can be viewed in full below. The end of the Cuban regime can't come soon enough.