Deadly gunfire erupted off Cuba’s coast as its coast guard engaged a Florida‑registered speedboat, leaving four dead and six wounded. US officials are monitoring amid rising tensions
Havana’s shores became the scene of a deadly maritime clash Wednesday after Cuban coast guard forces shot and killed four people and injured six others aboard a Florida‑registered speedboat in what Havana describes as an exchange of gunfire near its northern waters.
Cuba’s Interior Ministry said the speedboat—identified by registration number FL7726SH—was spotted about one nautical mile off Cayo Falcones island, near Villa Clara province, when a Cuban patrol vessel moved in to identify the vessel.
“As a coast guard vessel approached, ‘shots were fired from the illegal speedboat,’” the ministry said, injuring the commander of the Cuban vessel.
It added: “As a result of the clash, at the time of this report, on the foreign side, four aggressors were killed and six others were wounded.” Those injured were evacuated and received medical assistance, authorities said.
The ministry has not yet released the nationalities of the passengers on the US‑registered boat or explained why the boat was nearing Cuban waters.
US officials monitor through fog of details
In Washington, US Vice President JD Vance said the White House was “monitoring” the situation and added: “hopefully it’s not as bad as we fear it could be.”
Vance said he had been briefed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was attending a Caribbean summit, but that “we don’t know a whole lot of details.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also responded and said that Washington was seeking its own facts about the shooting.
“We’re not going to base our conclusions on what they’ve (Cuba) told us, and I’m very, very confident that we will know the full story of what happened here,” Rubio told reporters while on a trip to the Caribbean nation of St Kitts and Nevis.
Florida’s attorney general has ordered an investigation into the shooting, though details remain limited on the passengers’ identities or mission.
Cuba’s government frequently reports incursions by small vessels from the United States into its territorial waters—often tied to people‑smuggling or drug trafficking—though deadly exchanges are rare.
End of Article
