Ambassador Mike Waltz
U.S. Representative to the United Nations
New York, New York<\/p>\n
AS DELIVERED<\/p>\n
Thank you, Ms. Wosornu for your briefing. I want to start by reinforcing what Secretary Rubio has repeated before: the United States stands with the people of Cuba. Period. Stop. No question. And I say that proudly myself as a native Floridian with many, many Cuban Americans as neighbors and friends and colleagues.<\/p>\n
What the United States does not stand with is the communist regime that has failed them, that has jailed them, and that has stolen from them. We stand\u2014like so many Cuban patriots yearning to be free\u2014for their dignity, for their liberties, and for their freedom.<\/p>\n
Since the October 2025 hurricane, just last year, the United States has provided $9 million in humanitarian assistance that goes directly to the Cuban people\u2014not through Havana\u2019s corrupt hands.<\/p>\n
We are now offering an additional $100 million, a $100 million package of humanitarian assistance\u2014and despite the rhetoric you\u2019ve heard today, that includes food, it includes hygiene, it includes water treatment supplies\u2014to be distributed directly to the Cuban people through the Catholic Church, in full coordination, and other reliable institutions\u2014again not through the corrupt Communist regime.<\/p>\n
We are also permitting fuel deliveries. I\u2019m quite surprised to hear my colleague from Russia mention his concern for the fuel supplies. We\u2019ve allowed ships from Russia to deliver fuel, most recently, and of course do so on a humanitarian basis. We\u2019ve allowed fuel deliveries from the United States to private entities not affiliated with the regime.<\/p>\n
Colleagues, you are hearing a theme today many of us have heard for many decades, but this humanitarian provision is what America does. We deliver help to people in need all over the world, including to the people of Cuba. We do not write blank checks to dictatorships.<\/p>\n
Why? Well, let\u2019s talk about the real reason, the actual reason Cubans don\u2019t have electricity, fuel, or food. It\u2019s not because of the embargo, or because of an \u201coil blockade\u201d which is untrue and fake. That is the tired excuse Havana has been selling for many, many decades.<\/p>\n
The truth is much simpler, but harder to swallow: Cuba is suffering because the regime chose failed communist economics, is incompetent, and the massive corruption that it has enacted on its people over their basic needs.<\/p>\n
The Miami Herald in Florida has reported, the regime\u2019s state-owned enterprise, GAESA, and its subsidiaries have looted at least $18 billion from the Cuban people\u2014money that should have gone to food, fuel, and hospitals, medicine, and power. Instead, it\u2019s gone to regime elites, luxury hotels, security services, and the machinery of repression.<\/p>\n
This extends to fuel in Cuba as well, which is systematically controlled by the regime for the security services and not to the benefit of the Cuban people. Now, we are facilitating fuel arriving to the Cuban private sector\u2014the very small private sector\u2014but we are creating independent access to and distribution of fuel. Every gallon that reaches a private farmer, a small business, a church, or a clinic is one less gallon the regime can weaponize against its own people.<\/p>\n
Colleagues, the Cuban regime must make immediate economic and political reforms. We are asking very simple things. Open the economy. Free political prisoners. Stop treating private citizens as a threat. Stop blaming America for the misery produced by Havana and their failed policies.<\/p>\n
Every year, the Cuban regime tries to convince the Cuban people and the international community, right here in New York and elsewhere, that it is blameless for the chronic failure of Cuba\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
No one should buy it. Not in this chamber. Not in the General Assembly. Not anywhere.<\/p>\n
Colleagues, the Cuban regime is one of the worst human rights abusers in the world. For more than 60 years, it has crushed dissent, it has censored speech, it has jailed political prisoners, it has driven families into exile that have tried to escape in the most horrific conditions, and it has turned an island 90 miles from America into a prison for its own people.<\/p>\n
And the suffering will continue until the world stops giving Havana diplomatic cover and starts telling the truth.<\/p>\n
The regime conspires and collaborates with enemies and adversaries of democracy. It has supported Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, including by allowing thousands of mercenaries to fight for the Russian army; it is hosting Chinese surveillance facilities; it is providing support for terrorist organizations; and it is undermining other democracies in the region.<\/p>\n
This is a hostile regime that exports repression, it props up America\u2019s adversaries, and it invites them into our hemisphere.<\/p>\n
And it is for this reason that President Trump declared Cuba a threat to U.S. national security in his Executive Order of January 29, 2026.<\/p>\n
So here is the choice before Member States today: you can stand with the Cuban people, or you can keep lending your vote to the regime that broke their country. But you can\u2019t do both.<\/p>\n
We ask all Member States to stop voting for the regime\u2019s annual anti-embargo resolution in the UN General Assembly; insist that humanitarian assistance goes directly to the Cuban people\u2014not to the hands of the regime\u2014and publicly call for real, long-overdue economic and political reforms.<\/p>\n
The Cuban people do not need more propaganda from Havana\u2014particularly not here at the UN. They need food, they need fuel, they need medicine, electricity, and freedom\u2014and a government that finally, hopefully, stops stealing their future.<\/p>\n
Thank you, Madam.<\/p>\n
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