MEXICO CITY — Both Washington and Havana say they are launching investigations after Cuban authorities reported that their forces killed four people and wounded six others when a Florida-registered speedboat entered Cuban waters on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez wrote on X that “a thorough investigation is underway” and stressed that defending Cuba’s coasts and national security is a duty.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel also posted on X that Cuba “does not attack or threaten.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington will conduct its own inquiry. Rubio said Cuban officials told the United States that their troops fired on the vessel only after people on board opened fire.
“We’re going to have our own information on this, and we’re going to figure out exactly what happened,” Rubio told reporters on Wednesday, adding: “Suffice it to say it is highly unusual to see shootouts on open sea like that. It’s not something that happens every day. It’s something, frankly, that hasn’t happened with Cuba in a very long time.”
One of the surviving passengers has been identified as Amijail Sánchez González. He runs an organization called Auto Defensa del Pueblo — or “People’s Self-Defense” according to his friend, Michel “Kiki” Naranjo Riverón. Naranjo told NPR the group has spent years recruiting Cubans on the island to build what he described as a clandestine network aimed at sabotaging the Cuban government from within.
Naranjo said he did not know Sánchez’s specific plans but added that he would have been proud to be on the boat. He rejected the Cuban government’s characterization of the men as terrorists.
“They are all men who want Cuba to be free,” he told NPR. “They grew tired. They got tired of promises from presidents. They got tired of promises from members of Congress.”
Asked whether increased U.S. pressure — including tighter sanctions and restrictions — could topple the Cuban government, Naranjo said the only thing authorities in Havana understand is bullets.
The Cuban Interior Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that 10 armed men — all Cuban nationals living in the United States — were aboard the vessel and planning what the government described as a “terrorist infiltration” of the island.
Authorities say they recovered ” assault rifles, handguns, improvised explosive devices (Molotov cocktails), bulletproof vests, telescopic sights and camouflage uniforms.”
The Ministry said the speedboat had crossed into Cuban territorial waters and was intercepted about one nautical mile off Cayo Falcones, along the country’s northern coastline.
In addition to Amijail Sánchez González, Havana said it had detained Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez, Conrado Galindo Sariol, José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló, Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara and Roberto Azcorra Consuegra.
But one of the men Cuba says it has detained — Roberto Azcorra Consuegra — told the Associated Press he was shocked to see his name on the list. He said he was in South Florida.
“What’s important now is that my name is there — they say they have me detained, and I’m here in the United States,” Azcorra Consuegra told AP.
The government said a man identified as Michel Ortega Casanova was among those killed in the clash. The three other people killed during the encounter have not been publicly identified. The captain of the Cuban boat was injured.
The episode comes at a tense moment between Washington and Havana and has drawn comparisons to the 1996 shootdown of planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a U.S.-based group that assisted Cuban migrants at sea. Four people were killed in that incident.
The shootdown, which took place nearly 30 years to the day before this latest incident, prompted Congress to formally codify the U.S. embargo against Cuba, cementing sanctions that remain in effect today.
Michael Bustamante, a Cuba expert at the University of Miami, said the confrontation is likely to increase tensions in South Florida, though he described Rubio’s response as measured.
“I think the Trump administration seems torn between actually wanting to escalate things with Cuba beyond a point but also fearing the consequences,” Bustamante said.
Those consequences, he added, could include mass migration or even a regime crisis that might draw the United States into deeper involvement — an outcome he believes President Trump does not want.
Transcript:
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The Cuban government says its border troops engaged in a gunfight with a boat registered in Florida and killed four people on board.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The government says they were, quote, “terrorists trying to infiltrate the island.”
MARTIN: NPR’s Eyder Peralta is following this story from his base in Mexico City. Eyder, good morning.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So how did this happen?
PERALTA: Well, the Cuban government says this boat was registered in Florida and it ventured into Cuban territorial waters. They say when Cuban border troops approached the vessel, the people on board opened fire. Cuban troops then returned fire, killing four people on that boat and injuring the other six. The Cuban government also said the captain of its vessel was injured. Cuba’s interior ministry says that the men on the boats had, quote, “terrorist intent.” They said they recovered assault rifles, handguns and Molotov cocktails.
MARTIN: The Cuban government, as I understand it, released a list of people that they say were on the boat. Do we know anything about them?
PERALTA: Yeah, the Cuban government says that some of these people were known to them. They were Cubans living in the U.S., and some of them had been designated as terrorists by the Cuban government. We were able to learn about one of the survivors. His name is Amijail Sanchez Gonzalez and he runs a group called Auto Defensa del Pueblo, or the People’s Self-Defense Group. And I spoke to his friend Kiki Naranjo. They run the organization together, and he says that over the past few years, they’ve been recruiting Cubans inside the island to build a clandestine society. Essentially, he says, the point is to sabotage the Cuban government from the inside. And Naranjo says he did not know of the plans that Sanchez had, but that he would have been proud to be on that boat. None of those men, he told me, are terrorists.
KIKI NARANJO: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: “All of them are men who want Cuba to be free,” he says, “but they grew tired.”
NARANJO: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: “They got tired of promises from presidents, they got tired of promises from Congress.”
And I pressed him a little bit because the Trump administration is also very much turning up the pressure on Cuba. The U.S. has enacted an oil blockade, driven the country to the brink of collapse. And I asked Naranjo if he didn’t think that was enough to topple the government, and he replied, the only thing the Cuban government understands is bullets.
MARTIN: So what could be the fallout of this incident, which I think many people realize is taking place against a background of some tense moments already between the U.S. and Cuba?
PERALTA: Yeah. I mean, look, the first thing everyone thought when they heard this news was Brothers to the Rescue. And 30 years ago this week, the Cuban government shot down the plane of a U.S. organization that helped rescue Cuban migrants out at sea. Four people were killed, and the U.S. Congress reacted by codifying the embargo against Cuba. Those sanctions are still in place today. Yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, we’re not jumping to conclusions. We’re going to investigate. And I spoke to Michael Bustamante, who studies Cuba at the University of Miami, and he says this will no doubt inflame tensions in South Florida, but he was surprised by how measured Rubio’s comments were.
MICHAEL BUSTAMANTE: I think the Trump administration seems torn between actually wanting to escalate things with Cuba beyond a point, but then also fearing the consequences.
PERALTA: And those consequences, he said, could be mass migration or regime change triggering a U.S. military intervention, which he doesn’t think Trump wants.
MARTIN: That is NPR’s Eyder Peralta reporting from Mexico City. Eyder, thank you.
PERALTA: Thank you, Michel.
