Cuba’s coast guard killed four people on a speedboat from Florida who opened fire off the Cuban coast on Wednesday, the interior ministry in Havana said.
The ship was one nautical mile northeast of the El Pino canal in Cayo Falcones, the ministry said in a statement. When five members of the Border Guard Troops approached the boat for identification, those aboard the speedboat allegedly began shooting. The commander of the Cuban boat was injured, the ministry said.
“As a result of the confrontation,” four people aboard the speedboat were killed and six were injured, the ministry said. The injured parties “were evacuated and received medical assistance.”
It is not clear who was in the Florida-registered speedboat, where they were from, or what their reason was for entering Cuban waters or allegedly opening fire. An investigation is ongoing, the ministry said.
The identities of the four victims have not been confirmed by Cuban authorities or the U.S.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. government doesn’t have other information besides what the Cuban authorities have said. He said that the Department of Homeland Security, the Coast Guard and others are looking into the incident.
“We have our embassy on the ground in Havana working this as we speak, Rubio said, adding the U.S. is working to determine if the occupants of the boat were U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.
“According to the Cuban regime, the boat was registered in Florida. We’re tracking that down … We’re gonna find out exactly what happened here and we’ll respond accordingly,” he said.
In a separate news conference, Vice President JD Vance said the White House is monitoring the situation.
“Hopefully it’s not as bad as we fear it could be. But can’t say more, because I just don’t know more,” Vance said.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a social media post that he had ordered state prosecutors to “work with our federal, state, and law enforcement partners to begin an investigation.”
Rep. María Elvira Salazar of Florida said she was “closely monitoring reports” of the incident, calling it an “unfolding situation.”
Rep. Carlos Giménez, who was born in Cuba, called the incident a “massacre” and said the use of lethal force against individuals on a boat registered to the U.S. raises serious concerns.
“I am calling for an immediate investigation into this massacre,” Giménez said in a statement. “United States authorities must determine whether any of the victims were U.S. citizens or legal residents and establish exactly what occurred. The regime in Cuba must be relegated to the dustbin of history for its countless crimes against humanity.”
Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York told reporters he was informed of the incident when he stepped out to take a call during a Congressional Hispanic Caucus news conference at the annual House Democratic retreat in Leesburg, Virginia. Espaillat, the chair of the caucus, told reporters: “We’re going to be getting more detailed information.”
The Cuban government said it remained committed to “protecting its territorial waters.”
Tensions between the United States and Cuba have been escalating recently, with President Trump putting new sanctions and tariffs on the Caribbean country after the operation to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
