Four people who entered Cuban waters on a US-registered speedboat have been shot dead by border guards, Cuba’s government said.
In a statement, Cuba’s interior ministry said that the speedboat’s passengers opened fire on a coast guard vessel that approached them.
Six additional passengers were wounded in the incident, which took place near an island on Cuba’s northern coast.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the nationalities of those on board is unclear, and that the US will “make determinations based on the facts. Right now we’re still gathering facts.”
He said the boat was not carrying US government personnel.
Cuba’s government said it did not know the identities of those on board the vessel, nor what it was doing in the area, and that an investigation has been launched to “clarify” the event.
In statement posted on X, the ministry said the Florida-registered vessel – with the registration number FL7726SH – was detected near Cayo Falcones, in the country’s central Villa Clara province on Wednesday morning.
When a Cuban boat carrying five members of the ministry’s border guard approached the vessel for identification, “the crew of the violating speedboat opened fire” and wounded the Cuban commander, the statement said.
“As a consequence of the confrontation, as of the time of this report, four aggressors on the foreign vessel were killed and six injured.”
Those injured were evacuated and given medical assistance.
Rubio, spoke from Saint Kitts and Nevis, where he had travelled to meet with Caribbean leaders amid the Trump administration’s push to ramp up pressure on Cuba’s government, as well as other regional issues.
“It is highly unusual to see shootouts on the open sea like that. It’s not something that happens everyday,” Rubio told reporters.
“We’re going to find out exactly what happened, who was involved, and we’ll make a determination on the basis of what we find out,” he continued.
He vowed that US investigators would move “quickly” to gather the key facts, and that the US Coast Guard has travelled to the “vicinity” of the attack.
“I don’t know who has possession of the vessel. This is the first thing we want to have,” he said.
“We obviously want to have access to these people, if they are American citizens or US residents.”
But he added that the US would not rely on information provided by the Cuban government, and that Washington would independently verify the facts of the case.
The incident comes amid increased tensions between the US and Cuba, which is facing a deepening fuel crisis that has been worsened by the US blocking oil shipments from Venezuela, a long-standing ally in the region, to the island.
The Cuban statement alluded to these tensions, saying that “in the face of current challenges, Cuba reaffirms its determination to protect it territorial waters” and safeguard its sovereignty.
On Wednesday, the US Treasury said it would ease some small private sector transactions, including oil sales, to “support the Cuban people, for commercial and humanitarian use”.
It also happened one day after Cuban-American groups in Miami commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown, which killed four people.
Wednesday’s incident sparked several Florida lawmakers to call for an investigation and to criticise the Cuban government.
Florida Congressman Carlos Gimenez, a Cuban-American former mayor of Miami, said he would demand an investigation into what he called a “massacre”.
He added that US authorities “must determine whether any of the victims were US citizens or legal residents”.
Florida Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar said on social media she was following the situation and “awaiting further details from US authorities”.
James Uthmeier, Florida’s attorney general, said he would direct local law enforcement to investigate the incident.
“The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable,” he said.
In the US Senate, Florida Republican Rick Scott, demanded “a full investigation into this deeply concerning situation and to determine what happened.”
“The Communist Cuban regime must be held accountable!” he added.
US Vice-President JD Vance said the White House was “monitoring” the situation.
“Hopefully it’s not as bad as we fear it could be,” he said at an unrelated event in Washington.
“But I can’t say more because I just don’t know more.”
By BBC News
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