Cuban Diplomat Expelled by the U.S. Is Elected to the UN Budget Advisory Committee, Drawing U.S. Criticism
NEW YORK — In elections held by the UN General Assembly on November 6, Cuban diplomat Richard Tur de la Concepción — expelled from the United States just ten days earlier — was elected as an expert to the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) for the 2027–2029 term.
The ACABQ is a subsidiary expert body of the General Assembly with 21 members who serve in their personal capacity and advise the Assembly on the United Nations' administrative and budgetary questions. The election was documented under A/81/101 and A/C.5/81/6, with Tur listed among the newly elected members.
Tur had served as a first secretary at Cuba's Permanent Mission to the United Nations. On October 27, during the General Assembly's annual debate on the resolution calling for an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba, the Cuban delegation clashed heatedly with the U.S. side; Washington said Tur tried to snatch the phone of J.P. Freire, head of strategic communications for the U.S. mission, and physically assaulted him. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed the expulsion order that same night, and the State Department confirmed on October 29 that Tur had left the United States.
Jeff Bartos, the U.S. diplomat handling UN management and reform, criticised the election at the General Assembly on November 6, calling it a scandal to place a man expelled for assault in charge of overseeing UN spending, and saying the move effectively awarded him an annual salary of $180,000.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla congratulated Tur on social media. On November 2, Cuba held a welcome event for Tur in Havana, and Cuban officials called the election a victory.
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(Source: UN General Assembly)
Source: UN General Assembly
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：联合国大会堂内景（资料图）。Spiff 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Interior of the UN General Assembly Hall (file photo by Spiff, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons).
