14ymedio Faces of 2018: Anayansi Rodriguez Camejo, Cuban Ambassador Who Led an Act of Repudiation at the UN

Anayansi Rodríguez requested in a letter sent to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that an internal investigation be carried out “in order to determine those responsible for the violations” of the United States. (@CUBAONU)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 26 December 2018 — In January 2017, Anayansi Rodríguez Camejo delivered her credentials as permanent representative of Cuba to the United Nations. From that moment on, she became the first woman from the Island to assume that responsibility before the New York-based organization.

Previously, as a diplomat she had held the position of director of Multilateral Affairs in the Foreign Ministry and was Cuba’s permanent representative, until 2016, at the Office of the United Nations in Geneva.

Known for not deviating a single inch from the official discourse, Rodríguez compensates for the lack of charisma that is attributed to her with her great fidelity to the Plaza de la Revolución. Her work at the UN has been characterized by “revolutionary combativity” and continuous criticism of the United States.

In October, Rodríguez led an act of repudiation at the UN headquarters, in which several Cuban representatives loudly out-shouted a presentation being given on the United States’ campaign for political prisoners on the island. “In prison for what?” they yelled, while pounding on their desks.

“Never in my life had I seen diplomats behave like the Cuban delegation did today,” the American Kelley Currie, representative of that country on the UN Economic and Social Council, summed up after the meeting.

“One wonders, if the diplomats in this government behave like this, how will the police behave? It’s understandable why people are afraid to speak, why people are sent to jail for speaking,” Currie emphasized.

Rodriguez responded by accusing the United States of “smearing” the name of the United Nations in an act “against a member state, faking international support for its fallacious campaign.” To close her noisy performance, the ambassador of Cuba did not hesitate to accuse her opponents of having set up a “political comedy (with) crisis actors with an obscure track record in the service of a foreign power.”

See also: 14ymedio Faces of 2018

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