Cuba’s forces fatally shot four people, one of whom was a US citizen, on a Florida-registered speedboat that was trying to enter Cuban waters Wednesday and “infiltrate” the island, authorities said.
There were two US citizens among the 10 people aboard the speedboat, a US official told CNN Thursday. The second, who was wounded, was now receiving medical treatment in Cuba, the official said.
The shootout comes amid rising tensions between Cuba and the United States, which have both opened investigations into the incident.
As more details continue to emerge about the fatal shooting, here’s what we know so far.
What happened?
Cuban border guard troops approached the boat after it entered the country’s territorial waters in Falcones Cay, Villa Clara province, just over 100 miles from Florida, Cuba’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.
A passenger aboard the boat fired at the Cuban patrol vessel, wounding its commander and prompting Cuban forces to return fire, the statement said.
Four people on the speedboat were killed and six others were wounded, it said. The survivors are in custody and receiving medical attention, the statement added.
The ministry later said the passengers were Cuban residents of the US armed with assault rifles, handguns and molotov cocktails and that they had intended to carry out an “infiltration for terrorist purposes.”
In addition, another individual, reportedly sent from the United States to help facilitate the operation, was arrested and has since confessed, according to the ministry. CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.
The vessel, registered in the US as FL7726SH, according to Cuban authorities, is a 24-foot power boat manufactured in 1981, maritime database records show.
The location of the shootout, near Falcones Cay, is known for shallow waters, sandbars and beaches. It has historically been a route for Cuban migrants attempting the perilous journey to Florida.
A sheriff’s report obtained by CNN on Thursday shows that the boat used in the shootout was reported stolen in the Florida Keys on Wednesday night.
The owner told a sheriff’s deputy that he had noticed the boat was missing Wednesday morning and assumed that Hector Correa, a Cuban man whom he employed to do tile work, “took his boat to go fishing” without permission. The boat’s owner told the deputy that he believed Correa had taken his boat because he had been trying to fix two different boats with little success, and his truck was parked next to the dock.
It was only when reporters called the owner to inquire about his boat’s involvement in the shootout that he realized where Correa had taken it. A witness later told law enforcement that she had seen a man in a white truck board the craft and sail away the evening before. The sheriff’s report states that the truck belonged to Correa.
On Thursday afternoon, Cuban officials said that Correa was one of the four people killed in the incident.
Who was involved?
A policeman watches over the aftermath of a rare demonstration against Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in Havana, on July 11, 2021.Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images
In addition to the two US citizens, one of those aboard the speedboat had a K-1, or fiancé, visa, while others may have been US legal permanent residents, according to the US official who spoke to CNN, though that has not yet been confirmed.
Two of the survivors had previously been wanted by Cuba for terrorism, according to the country’s interior ministry.
One of those men appears to have previously shared what seems to be a declaration of an upcoming attack. In a Facebook post, an individual identifying himself as Amijail Sánchez González reposted a document signed on January 31 by four anti-government groups that pledged to take “imminent” and “decisive” action.
Earlier this month, the same individual posted a video saying that if he was injured in any action, he would likely die, noting that he was taking blood thinners.
On Thursday, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Fernández de Cossío said that Cuba “is still awaiting responses to its requests for information about” the two men “and the other individuals and organizations included on the list.”
Michael J. Bustamante, a professor of Cuban studies at the University of Miami, told CNN that the organizations allegedly connected to the incident “may be known on certain corners of the Cuban diaspora/exile internet, but they are fringe groups that are unlikely to have direct connections to more mainstream Cuban-American political leaders.”
While Wednesday’s incident did not appear to be well-planned, Bustamante said it “recalls a long history of Cuban exile clandestine organizing and militancy dating to the 1960s and ’70s — both with and without US support, and sometimes in open defiance of the US government.”
“One question will be whether US officials (like the FBI) were aware of this organization and its activities,” he added.
The Cuban government also identified Pavel Alling Peña, a writer from Camagüey who recently posted an Instagram video on annexationism and defending national sovereignty as an essential value. Another man, Conrado Galindo Sariol, was also identified as being on the boat.
Galindo’s son, Norge Evelio Galindo, had been imprisoned in Cuba for his participation in July 11, 2021, anti-government protests and was released in February 2024, according to a post Galindo made on Facebook.
“I’m proud of what my father just did,” Norge told CNN on Thursday. “I expected nothing less from him.”
“Although I didn’t know what he was doing, I always knew that if that opportunity presented itself, he wasn’t going to let it pass him by,” Norge added. Now living in Mexico, he said that he spoke to family back home in Cuba and his father’s wife in the US about his father’s actions.
“Everyone is baffled because they didn’t expect this,” he said, noting that his father had not been back to Cuba in 10 years.
In 2024, CNN also spoke with Galindo about his son’s imprisonment. Galindo’s cousin told CNN on Thursday that Galindo, too, was previously imprisoned for “not agreeing with that damned government and system.”
“What I know about him is that he lives in Florida, and like almost every Cuban who emigrated to this great nation, we don’t agree with the dictatorship that’s in our country, Cuba, a dictatorship that has been in power for 67 years, oppressing the people and with a Cuba in misery and destruction,” Leonardo Galindo said.
“But I didn’t imagine he and other compatriots would be on that journey to Cuba,” the cousin added.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party of Cuba said in a statement that one of its members was among those killed, but distanced itself from the attack, saying it was not aware of his intentions. CNN has reached out to the party for comment.
While some anti-government Cuban exiles living in the US might hail the groups allegedly involved in Wednesday’s incident as “heroes or martyrs,” said Helen Yaffe, a professor of Latin American political economy at the University of Glasgow and Cuba expert, they are not well known or supported within Cuba.
What has the US said?
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to reporters at Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis on Wednesday.Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the incident “highly unusual,” saying that the speedboat did not carry US government personnel and was not part of any official operation.
“We’re going to find out exactly what happened here and then we’ll respond accordingly,” said Rubio, who was in the region on an official visit to Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Rubio added that the US Embassy in Havana, the Department of Homeland Security and the US Coast Guard are investigating the incident, stressing that authorities need to determine the facts before taking any action.
In a press conference in Havana on Thursday, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister said the United States had “shown a willingness to cooperate” regarding the incident.
Meanwhile, Florida officials, including Attorney General James Uthmeier and Republican lawmakers Carlos A. Gimenez and Rick Scott, called for accountability and a thorough investigation into the use of lethal force against individuals aboard a US-registered vessel.
Why are tensions so high?
The incident occurred amid heightened tensions between Havana and Washington, which has imposed sanctions and restrictions on oil shipments from Venezuela, Cuba’s main supplier. Following the US capture in January of Venezuelan leader and Cuban ally Nicolás Maduro — an operation in which 32 Cuban personnel guarding Maduro were killed — the administration of US President Donald Trump has set its sights on Cuba, blocking all oil deliveries to the island and talking of regime change.
The blockade has brought Cuba’s economy to its knees, with the Caribbean nation experiencing its worst era of economic uncertainty in decades and the United Nations warning of a potential humanitarian “collapse.”
The US slightly eased the embargo on Wednesday, saying it would grant licenses to private Cuban entities looking to resell oil from Venezuela.
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Cuba was in a “big deal of trouble,” but was “talking” with the US, suggesting that a “friendly takeover” may be on the way.
“We could very well end up having a friendly takeover of Cuba. After many, many years,” Trump told reporters in Washington. “We’ve had a lot of years of dealing with Cuba. I’ve been hearing about Cuba since I’m a little boy.”
A “takeover” of Cuba by the US is not without precedent. Under President William McKinley, whom Trump admires, the United States occupied the island from 1898 to 1902. In 1906, the US re-occupied the island for another three years under McKinley’s successor, Theodore Roosevelt.
Has this happened before?
In 2022, the Interior Ministry in Havana said Cuba had intercepted 13 US speedboats with 23 crew members whom it accused of “carrying out human trafficking operations” by taking people from the island to the US.
The fatal shooting also took place just one day after the 30th anniversary of the Cuban military’s downing of two planes belonging to the Cuban-American humanitarian organization Brothers to the Rescue over the waters north of Havana. Four people were killed in the incident.
José Basulto, the leader of Brothers to the Rescue and one of the few survivors of the shootdown in 1996, told CNN that he did not know any of the men allegedly involved in Wednesday’s incident, and was not aware of their organizations.
Earlier this month, Trump extended a Clinton-era emergency measure enacted after Cuba shot down the planes, which allows US authorities to board any vessel that may be headed toward Cuba.
CNN’s Mauricio Torres, Hira Humayun, Lex Harvey, German Padinger, Jack Guy, Max Saltman, Patrick Oppmann and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.
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