On October of 1868 in the City of Yara in Granma Province, the first armed clash between Cubans and Spaniards took place, led by the General-in-Chief of the Liberation Army, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.
In this engagement, the first Cuban to die for the cause of independence, Fernando Guardia y Céspedes, was killed; on the Spanish side, a soldier surnamed Aguilera also fell. This event signaled to both Cuba and the world that a revolution for independence had begun on the island.
152 years later Cubans are still yelling and clashing with foreign powers. In October of 2026 U.S. and Cuban officials engaged in a stunning shouting match on the floor of the United Nations General Assembly, the latest in a series of public spats between the longtime adversaries over Washington's escalating economic campaign against Havana.
The interaction began shortly after U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz took the podium to argue against supporting the annual resolution this week condemning the U.S.' decades-long economic embargo against the island country.
As Waltz was detailing years of alleged corruption by the socialist government, members of the Cuban delegation, including Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, began to slam on their designated table and yell for a point of order.
Then, as U.N. officials sought to tone down the outbursts, Rodríguez walked down the aisle to the head of the General Assembly and yelled to Waltz, “You are a liar!"
Waltz responded: “You understand who you’re dealing with? This is America. Back up.”
While the moment represented a shocking break from diplomatic decorum traditional to the U.N., it perfectly captured the heightened tensions between Cuba and the U.S. as President Donald Trump's administration seeks to force changes to Cuba’s political system by increasing its already punishing economic campaign.
The Caribbean country, already facing the dire impact of longtime economic and financial troubles — is now being pushed to a breaking point after Trump, a Republican, announced in late January that he would impose tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba. The warning has effectively cut off fuel to the island, leading to widespread power outages that affect basic activities such as cooking, the water supply and internet and telephone services.
Cuban officials have also repeatedly stressed that as U.S. officials demand that Cuba open up to private investment, Washington keeps piling on sanctions that stymie the very economic opening it has sought for decades.
The outbursts Tuesday come a week after a similar interaction between Waltz and his Cuban counterpart, Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, outside a U.S.-hosted panel with Cuban dissidents and former prisoners that sought to highlight allegations of the oppressive behavior of the island’s government.
Waltz and other U.S. officials have been using these public events and gatherings at the world body to try to persuade U.N. member states to vote on Wednesday against the annual resolution, which is aimed at calling out the U.S. government’s “maximum pressure policy” against Cuba… and so it goes.