It was on Wednesday morning, just off the islands of Cayo Falcones in Cuba, that it happened. According to the Cuban Ministry of the Interior, the crew of a motor boat started shooting at the coast guard, who responded with their own fire. A total of ten people traveled in the motorboat. Four of them were killed. Another six people were injured, the ministry writes in a statement shared by the embassy on X.
The motorboat was registered in Florida, USA. The Cuban government claims that the people on board were Cubans living in the United States who intended to infiltrate the homeland. They are said to have had terrorist motives and “a known history of criminal and violent activity”.
Several could be arrested. Various finds were also made on the boat. There were automatic carbines, pistols, homemade explosives, including Molotov cocktails, bulletproof vests, binoculars and camouflage uniforms, the Cuban government said, according to the New York Times.
The US will investigate the incident. At a press conference, Foreign Minister Marco Rubio announces that the country has no ongoing effort in Cuba and that no government employees were involved, writes Axios.
– It is very unusual to see shootings out on the open sea like that. It’s not something that happens every day. “Actually, that hasn’t happened to Cuba in a very long time,” said Rubio, whose parents immigrated from Cuba to the United States.
Clashes between the US and Cuba at sea have happened before, however. In 2022, Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior stated that during the year they discovered 13 American boats that were involved in people smuggling. In two of the cases, gunfire broke out.