Cuba’s coast guard killed four people and wounded six others in an exchange of fire with a U.S. speedboat off the island’s coast on Wednesday, Cuban authorities said.
According to a statement from Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior, the Florida-registered vessel (registration FL7726SH) entered Cuban territorial waters near Villa Clara province, approaching within roughly one nautical mile of Cayo Falcones before Cuban border guard troops intercepted it.
The statement said the speedboat’s crew fired on the approaching Cuban patrol vessel, injuring its commander. Cuban forces then returned fire, killing four people aboard the speedboat and wounding six others, who were evacuated and received medical treatment.
Cuban officials did not immediately release the identities or nationalities of those aboard the boat. The Cuban government described the incident as a defensive action in its territorial waters and said an investigation is ongoing.
The U.S. government had not issued a comment on the incident as of Wednesday afternoon.
The incident echoes historical U.S.-Cuba maritime tensions and comes amid Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s secret back-channel discussions with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the 41-year-old grandson and close confidant of Cuba’s former leader, Raúl Castro.
A senior U.S. official calls them “discussions about the future” of Cuba — not negotiations — underscoring Washington’s intent to explore paths forward as sanctions tighten and Havana’s economy teeters.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
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How I hate to ‘say’ it because I have VERY little regard for the Cuban government, but they had a clear right to do what they did.
Their territorial waters were invaded and they were shot at.
This, of course, if predicated on the story being correct ( which it probably is ).
There is no possible or imaginable way for you to verify what happened, for the only details you know appear to be Cuban propaganda. But you have an opinion about who was right and who was wrong. How comes?