Jeers at Cuban activists mark United Nations meeting

Cuba's permanent mission to the United Nations greeted activists participating in a New York meeting with insults and jeers. The corridor incident at U.N. headquarters was described as an act of repudiation. The meeting, held Monday, concerned oppression that organizers said Havana conceals and included Cuban opposition figures invited by the United States.

Former political prisoners Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and José Daniel Ferrer were among those attending. Ferrer denounced the incident at U.N. headquarters. Their presence linked the gathering with invited Cuban opposition voices.

Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, spokesperson for the Cuban Democratic Directorate and a member of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, was a focus of the official response. Díaz-Canel and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez also criticized participants on social media.

Cuban ambassador Ernesto Soberón Guzmán led the corridor protest and called the meeting a political maneuver aimed at weakening support. His statement forms part of Cuba's official response to a U.S.-supported gathering involving activists.

Rodríguez accused Boronat of enjoying impunity through U.S. delegation protection and referred to U.N. resolutions. Those statements show the political confrontation's tone without changing the central fact that activists received insults and jeers at the headquarters.