Marco Rubio Orders Cuban Diplomat Expelled After UN Confrontation

Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed an order expelling a Cuban diplomat after a confrontation at United Nations headquarters, according to U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz. The diplomat, Richard Tur de la Concepción, is the first secretary of Cuba’s UN delegation. Waltz said Rubio approved the paperwork on October 27, following a heated exchange in the General Assembly Hall. Speaking to Sean Hannity, Waltz accused Tur de la Concepción of pushing and trying to assault a member of his team. He said the diplomat would be sent to Havana within 24 hours and warned that the administration would not tolerate physical intimidation of American personnel. The Cuban government had not publicly responded to the allegation in the reports cited. Video shared by Waltz shows Tur de la Concepción reaching toward a phone held by Waltz’s spokesman, J.P. Freire, who was recording the exchange. In another clip, the Cuban diplomat says Waltz’s staff had violated his personal space. The accounts presented by the two sides were not the same: Waltz described an attempted assault, while the diplomat objected to how close the U.S. team had come. Waltz also defended his own response during the television interview, invoking his 27 years as a Green Beret and saying he would protect his staff from attempts at intimidation. The ambassador had accused Cuban officials of trying to silence his team during a speech criticizing Cuba’s government. He framed the expulsion as a consequence of the alleged conduct, but the reports did not include a separate public statement from the State Department confirming the details or an official Cuban account.