United States and Cuban officials clash at the UN

ICYMI, Representatives for the United States and Cuba clashed on the floor of the United Nations, ahead of an annual vote on a resolution calling for an end to the US embargo on the island.

It began when US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, said Cuba had benefitted from forced labour of “gay people, Christians and Afro-Cubans” who were sent to concentration camps in the 1960’s.

The Cuban delegation stood up in opposition and began banging on the table while calling for a point of order. Cuba’s ambassador Ernesto Soberón and foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla then approached the podium where Waltz was speaking.

At the height of the confrontation, General Assembly President Khalilur Rahman suspended the session.

A motion calling for the US to end the embargo on Cuba passed but with fewer votes than it received last year.

Between 1965 and 1968, Cuba sent thousands of people deemed ‘anti-social’, including gay men, religious believers and dissidents, to forced labour camps known as UMAPs (Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Producción).

While there has been no official apology from the Cuban government, Fidel Castro did in 2010 acknowledge the treatment of gay men during the early years of his regime as a “great injustice”.

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