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The Cuban government says its forces have shot dead four Cuban citizens aboard a US-registered speedboat that had entered its territorial waters and fired on a patrol boat.
It said six others on the speedboat, also Cuban citizens, were injured and taken into custody.
The Cuban commander of the border patrol boat was also injured by the Cuban Interior Ministry.
In a statement, the ministry said the 10 passengers on board the speedboat, which it claimed was registered in Florida, were living in the US, and “according to preliminary statements of the detained, their intention was to infiltrate for terrorist purposes”.
It said the passengers were armed, and most of them had “prior records involving criminal and violent activities”.
The statement said the items seized included assault rifles, handguns and Molotov cocktails.
The ministry identified the six detained and said they were wanted by Cuban authorities “based on their participation in the promotion, planning, organisation, financing, support or commission of acts carried out on national territory or in other countries in connection with acts of terrorism.”
The ministry also identified one of the dead and said efforts were underway to identify the other three.
The government said another Cuban national had been arrested, adding that he “was sent from the United States to facilitate the disembarkation and reception of the armed group and has confessed to his role”.
Would the US try to determine whether those involved in the incident?
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that no US government personnel were involved but insisted, “We will have our own information on this; we will find out exactly what happened.”
He said the US would try to determine whether those involved in the incident were US citizens or permanent residents.
How did the incident unfold?
The interior ministry earlier said in a statement that the speedboat had come within a nautical mile of a channel off Falcon’s Cay off Cuba’s northern coast when five members of a Cuban patrol unit approached it.
The speedboat’s crew then opened fire, wounding the Cuban ship’s commander, the statement said.
It said the injured were evacuated and given medical aid.
A Cuban coast guard ship. File photo: Reuters
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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeyer said he was ordering prosecutors to launch a separate investigation with other state and federal law enforcement partners.
“The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable,” he wrote on X.
Florida Congressman Carlos Jimenez, a former Cuban-American mayor of Miami, called for an “immediate” investigation into what he called a “massacre”.
This comes at a time of increased tension between the US and Cuba following increasing pressure from the Donald Trump administration.
The two countries previously cooperated to combat drug trafficking and other crimes but have now stopped doing so.
The US has also blocked almost all oil shipments to the island, increasing pressure on its Communist-run government.
