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Cuba said its forces fatally shot four heavily armed people attempting to “infiltrate” its territory on a Florida-registered speedboat on Wednesday, amid simmering tensions between the communist island and the US.
Cuban border guard troops approached the boat after it entered their territorial waters in Falcones Cay, Villa Clara province, just over 100 miles from Florida, the country’s interior ministry said in a statement.
A passenger on the speedboat shot at the Cuban vessel, wounding its commander, and prompting Cuban forces to return fire, according to the statement. Six other people aboard the speedboat were wounded and are in custody and receiving medical attention.
The passengers were Cuban residents of the US and were armed with assault rifles, handguns and Molotov cocktails, and had “intended to carry out an infiltration for terrorist purposes,” according to a later statement from the ministry.
Two of the surviving passengers were previously wanted by Cuba for terrorism, the ministry added.
The vessel was not carrying US government personnel and was not on a US government operation, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier.
The registration number given by Cuban authorities, FL7726SH, matched a 24-foot power boat that was manufactured in 1981, according to maritime database records.
Another individual who was sent from the US to “facilitate the reception of the armed infiltration” was arrested and has since confessed, the Cuban interior ministry statement said. CNN has reached out to the White House regarding the latest Cuban statement.
The shootout comes amid heightened tensions between the US and Cuba. Following the US ousting in January of Venezuelan leader and Cuban ally Nicolás Maduro, the administration of US President Donald Trump has set its sights on Cuba, blocking all oil deliveries to the island and talking of regime change.
The blockade has brought Cuba’s economy to its knees, with the Caribbean nation experiencing its worst era of economic uncertainty in decades and the UN warning of a potential humanitarian “collapse.”
The US eased the embargo slightly on Wednesday, saying it would grant licenses to private Cuban entities looking to resell oil from Venezuela, the main supplier of crude and fuel to the Cuban market. That market is largely dominated by the public sector.
Cuba has clashed with US boats before
Cuba’s forces have engaged in skirmishes with US boats entering its waters in the past, though it is rare to see deadly shootouts on this scale.
Havana’s ministry of the interior said it intercepted 13 US speedboats in 2022 with 23 crew members who it accused of “carrying out human trafficking operations” taking people from Cuba to the US.
The north coast of Villa Clara province, where the speedboat was intercepted on Wednesday, is known for its white-sand beaches, shallow waters and sandbars. The US Coast Guard has previously intercepted speedboats off its coast that it said were carrying illegal migrants to the US, which is home to a Cuban exile community largely opposed to the island’s communist government.
The fatal shooting comes just one day after the 30-year anniversary of when the Cuban military downed two planes belonging to the Cuban-American humanitarian organization Brothers to the Rescue over the waters north of Havana, killing four.
Earlier this month, Trump extended a Clinton-era emergency measure, enacted after Cuba shot down the planes, which allows US authorities to board any vessel which may be headed toward Cuba.
Nearly one million Cubans have fled to the US in recent years, with thousands attempting the perilous sea journey to Florida in makeshift vessels. However, unlike previous Republican and Democratic administrations, which generally treated Cubans as political refugees and gave them a unique fast track to US residency, Trump has deported Cubans in record numbers.
US officials call for investigation
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US embassy in Havana was looking into the incident after being informed of it by Cuban authorities. The Department of Homeland Security and the US Coast Guard are also involved.
“We’re going to find out exactly what happened here and then we’ll respond accordingly,” said Rubio, who was in the region on an official visit to Saint Kitts and Nevis.
“Suffice it to say, it is highly unusual to see shootouts on open sea like that,” he added. “It’s something, frankly, that hasn’t happened over Cuba in a very long time.”
Officials from Florida called for an investigation and for the Cuban government to be held accountable.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said he has directed the Office of Statewide Prosecution to help federal, state, and law enforcement authorities begin an investigation.
US Republican Congressman Carlos A. Gimenez, whose district includes the southern tip of Florida, said the incident raised concerns about the use of lethal force against people aboard a US-registered vessel and called for an investigation into the incident.
Republican Senator Rick Scott, also from Florida, called the incident “deeply concerning” and said the Cuban government “must be held accountable.”
Cuba ally Russia also weighed in on the incident, with a foreign ministry spokeswoman calling it an “aggressive provocation by the United States” aimed at triggering conflict, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
Cuban troops kill 4 in confrontation with Florida speedboat
Cuba’s government said the crew opened fire on members of its border guard.
Cuban border troops killed four people and wounded six during a confrontation Wednesday that Cuban authorities called an attempted terrorist attack, raising tensions with the U.S. during a politically fraught moment.
The island nation’s Ministry of the Interior said the speedboat’s passengers opened fire on troops after they approached the vessel in Cuban territorial waters.
A commander on the Cuban vessel was also wounded in the confrontation and the injured people from the speedboat were taken for medical treatment, the ministry said in a statement
In a statement later Wednesday, the Cuban government said the 10 people involved in the attack were Cuban nationals living in the U.S. who “intended to carry out an infiltration for terrorist purposes.” Cuban authorities seized assault rifles, handguns and explosive devices following the confrontation.
“In the face of current challenges, Cuba reaffirms its determination to protect its territorial waters, based on the principle that national defense is a fundamental pillar of the Cuban State in safeguarding its sovereignty and ensuring stability in the region,” the ministry said.
The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The incident comes amid heightened tensions between the Trump administration and the Cuban regime, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio — who is leading talks with Cuba — currently in the region for an annual meeting of Caribbean heads of state.
Rubio said the Department of Homeland Security, the Coast Guard and “various elements” of the government were responding to the incident and that the administration would “respond accordingly.”
The U.S. Embassy in Havana requested access to the people aboard the Florida boat, he said.
“Suffice it to say, it is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that” he told reporters. “It’s not something that happens every day. It’s something, frankly, that hasn’t happened with Cuba in a very long time.”
The people on the speedboat were not U.S. government personnel, Rubio said.
President Donald Trump has threatened to impose secondary tariffs on countries that work to help Cuba in the wake of the U.S. ouster of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s in an operation that cut Cuba off from Venezuelan oil shipments. Trump said in the wake of Maduro’s capture that “Cuba looks like it is ready to fall.”
The president has also weighed taking measures to pursue regime change in Cuba, including a potential total blockade on oil imports to the country, POLITICO previously reported.
But the Trump administration reversed course on Wednesday, with the Treasury Department announcing that it would allow companies to begin selling Venezuelan oil to Cuba again.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a Wednesday social media post that he had directed the Office of Statewide Prosecution to cooperate with state and federal law enforcement in investigating the incident.
“The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable,” Uthmeier said.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) meanwhile, said in a statement that she was “deeply concerned by reports of a shooting involving Cuban regime forces and a Florida-registered vessel, as well as the silence from the Trump Administration on this deadly incident.” She called for an immediate investigation into the shooting.
“My office has contacted the State Department for more information, but it’s notable that this occurred in spite of ongoing Trump Administration negotiations with the Cuban regime,” Schultz said.
Felicia Schwartz and Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.
No food, no fuel, no tourists: Under US pressure, life in Cuba grinds to a halt
Mandy Pruna remembers with a nostalgia-filled grin the influx of American travelers that came to Cuba after then-US President Barack Obama restored diplomatic relations with the island in 2015.
Pruna and his bright red 1957 Chevrolet were in constant demand and he says countless visitors including celebrities like Will Smith, Rihanna and Kim Kardashian paid princely sums – at least for Cuba – to go on classic car tours with him.
His Chevy was one of three vintage American automobiles that US diplomats selected to be in the background for the flag raising ceremony at the US Embassy in Havana that marked the official restoration of ties between the two countries following decades of bitter animosity.
“All sectors of society benefited from that,” Pruna said, referring to the brief improvement in relations. “You saw people painting their houses, opening new businesses. For me it was fantastic. It was the best era for tourism in Cuba.”
Now, Cuba may be experiencing the most profound moment of economic uncertainty that the island’s residents have endured in decades if not over their entire lives.
Through military action in Venezuela and threats of tariffs on Mexico, the Trump administration has shut off the flow of oil to Cuba, attempting to strong-arm the communist-run island into making significant political and economic reforms.
Cuba does not appear to have any remaining allies willing to supply the hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of fuel needed to power the economy.
What oil the island has left is running out.
The twin loss of fuel and tourists for people like Pruna has been catastrophic.
“I need gas to be able to work, I need tourists to be able to work,” he said.
As the crisis drags on, life is slowly grinding to a halt across this island of nearly 10 million people.
Classes have been suspended at many schools and workers furloughed to save energy. Near vacant hotels have been shuttered and flights from Russia and Canada canceled as there is not enough jet fuel on the island for longer international flights.
The UK and Canada have warned citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Cuba.
Last week, organizers canceled the yearly Habanos cigar festival that brings in millions of dollars of revenue. Sherrit International on Tuesday announced that the company is pausing nickel and cobalt mining operations in Cuba amid the fuel crunch.
Many government-run hospitals have cut services and a lack of fuel and working dump trucks has caused trash to pile up across whole neighborhoods.
On nearly every street corner, conversations center on when power cuts are taking place and for how long. At night in Havana, the stars are often clearly visible as most of the city is swathed in near total darkness.
The Trump administration says the Cuban government needs to finally open the island’s centralized economy before it collapses.
“There’s no oil, there’s no money, there’s no anything,” US President Donald Trump told reporters Monday, adding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading efforts to negotiate with top Cuban officials.
Rubio, who is Cuban American and a longtime opponent of the Cuban government, has previously said the only thing he intends to discuss with the island’s communist leadership is when they would relinquish power.
“This is a regime that has survived almost entirely on subsidies – first from the Soviet Union, then from (former Venezuelan President) Hugo Chavez,” Rubio said last week during the Munich Security Conference. “For the first time, it has no subsidies coming in from anyone, and the model has been laid bare.”
After so many years of living on the precipice of economic collapse, a humanitarian crisis may be coming for Cuba.
Already most of the food Cubans consume is imported following decades of their government’s disastrous agricultural policies.
That tenuous lifeline is at risk though as anti-Castro Cuban-American politicians have called for a total cut-off of assistance from the US.
“This is the moment to stop everything: no more tourism, no more remittances, no more mechanisms that continue to finance and sustain the dictatorship,” said Republican congresswoman from Florida Maria Elvira Salazar, a former journalist at CNN en Español.
“It’s devastating to think about a mother’s hunger, about a child who needs immediate help. No one is indifferent to that pain. But that is precisely the brutal dilemma we face as exiles: to resolve the short-term suffering or to free Cuba forever,” Salazar said.
Already some of the private sector companies importing food from the US have suspended operations, saying they are no longer able to refrigerate their products during the daily power outages.
Faced with the worsening shortages, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has called on the population to “resist creatively” and adopt a war-time mentality.
“We will eat what we can produce in each place. Now if there is less fuel then food will not be able to leave from some municipalities to other ones,” Diaz-Canel said during a televised appearance in January.
At Havana’s “agro-markets” that sell the small selection of food produced on the island, some people warned of the increasing difficulty in bringing fruits and vegetables to the capital from the countryside where they are grown.
“We are paying two, three times as much to restock and keep people happy,” said Anayasi, a food vendor who did not want give her last name for speaking critically of the worsening economic situation. “There’s no food. The impact will be terrible. We won’t have anything.”
Classic car driver Mandy Pruna said he is considering trying to emigrate to Spain with his family. After 20 years making a good living ferrying tourists in his Chevy, he no longer sees a future in his homeland.
“Everything is uncertain at the moment. There’s no fuel. We don’t know if there will be any and how we will pay for it,” he said. “If I have to pay for gas in dollars how do I recoup that if there’s no tourism?”
Earlier that same morning, Pruna said, he had suspended his license to work as a classic car driver.
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