Cuban UN envoy criticised over gay-romance innuendo targeting US diplomat and dissident
Cuba’s permanent representative to the UN, Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, posted a video parody on X on 19 October 2026 featuring US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz and Cuban dissident José Daniel Ferrer. As CiberCuba reported on 20 October, some users criticised the romantic innuendo as carrying a homophobic undertone.
The montage pairs images of Waltz and Ferrer with pink hearts and music, portraying them as a romantic couple. Soberón added a remark about pictures with music being more expressive than words, alongside a slogan opposing the US blockade of Cuba.
The post followed a confrontation at UN headquarters in New York. According to Reuters on 19 October, Cuban diplomats shouted accusations at Waltz after an event with Cuban dissidents organised by the US mission. Participants discussed human rights violations on the island.
Waltz described the Cuban representatives’ conduct as intimidation of participants. Soberón, meanwhile, accused Washington of collectively punishing Cubans through sanctions. The Cuban side views such events as US political pressure, while the American mission presents them as discussions of repression in Cuba.
Separately, CiberCuba quoted journalist José Raúl Gallego’s assessment of a gesture by a person in a black jacket during the confrontation. He described the person flapping their hands like wings and interpreted this as homophobic mockery, linked to the Cuban slur for gay men “pájaro”, meaning “bird”.
The confrontation preceded the General Assembly’s annual consideration of the embargo. On October 28, the UN again adopted a resolution calling for an end to the US embargo.
In Cuba, same-sex couples’ legal position changed in 2022: the Family Code approved by referendum allowed them to marry and adopt. Reuters reported those changes. Criticism of the video parody concerns using a supposed same-sex relationship to ridicule political opponents.
