Cuba says it killed 4 people on speedboat from Florida, alleges they were trying to carry out terrorism on Cuba

The Cuban coast guard killed four people – who the Cuban government said were planning to commit terrorist acts on the island – after opening fire from a speedboat coming from Florida, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday in Havana.

The vessel was located one nautical mile northeast of El Pino Channel, Cayo Falcones, the ministry said in a statement. When five members of the border guards approached the boat to identify them, the people on board the speedboat allegedly started shooting. The captain of the Cuban boat was injured, the ministry said.

“As a result of the clash,” four people on board the speedboat were killed and six were injured, the ministry said. The injured “were evacuated and received medical treatment.”

Cuba’s Interior Ministry said Wednesday evening that the boat was carrying 10 people armed with assault rifles, handguns and Molotov cocktails, and that the boat’s occupants were attempting to “conduct an infiltration for terrorist purposes.” The department said the 10 people were Cubans living in the United States and most had violent criminal histories.

The ministry identified one of the four killed as Michel Ortega Casanova. Six other people arrested were identified as Amijail Sánchez González, Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez, Conrado Galindo Sariol, José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló, Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara and Roberto Azcorra Consuegra.

These identities and alleged motivations have not been confirmed by the United States.

The ministry also said a seventh person, Cuban national Duniel Hernández Santos, had been arrested on the island of Cuba and claimed he had been sent from the United States to help those on the boat.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the U.S. government had no information other than that declared by Cuban authorities. He said the Department of Homeland Security, the Coast Guard and others are investigating the incident.

“We have our embassy on the ground in Havana working on this as we speak,” Rubio said, adding that the United States is working to determine whether the boat’s occupants were U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.

“According to the Cuban regime, the boat was registered in Florida. We are in the process of tracking it down…We will find out exactly what happened here and we will respond accordingly,” he said.

In another press conference, Vice President JD Vance said the White House was monitoring the situation.

“I hope it’s not as bad as we fear. But I 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 directed state prosecutors to “work with our federal, state and law enforcement partners to open an investigation.”

Rep. María Elvira Salazar of Florida said she was “closely monitoring reports” about the incident, calling it an “ongoing situation.”

Cuban-born Rep. Carlos Giménez called the incident a “massacre” and said the use of deadly force against individuals aboard a U.S.-registered boat raised serious concerns.

“I call for an immediate investigation into this massacre,” Giménez said in a statement. “US authorities must determine whether any of the victims were US citizens or legal residents and establish exactly what happened. The Cuban regime must be relegated to the dustbin of history for its countless crimes against humanity.”

Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York told reporters he learned of the incident when he came out to take a call at a Congressional Hispanic Caucus news conference at the House Democrats’ annual retreat in Leesburg, Virginia. Espaillat, the caucus chairman, told reporters, “We’re going to get more detailed information.”

The Cuban government said it remained committed to “protecting its territorial waters.”

Tensions between the United States and Cuba have recently escalated, with President Trump new sanctions and tariffs on the Caribbean country after the operation to capture former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.