Maduro would have addressed the annual U.N. General Assembly for the first time since becoming head of state following the death earlier this year of longtime President Hugo Chávez.
The veteran swimmer had hoped to complete the treacherous 160-kilometer (100-mile) trek in 80 hours. But in the end, she did it in 52 hours, 54 minutes and 18.6 seconds.
Leftist presidents from Uruguay, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua were all on hand to commemorate the event, along with some 10,000 Cubans and foreigners.
The voyage of the freighter Chong Chon Gang to Cuba, far from the Chinese waters where it normally operates, is not the first time a ship from the isolated communist country has followed that route.
