Cuban soldiers kill four, injure six in shootout with Florida‑registered boat

Photo: TMZ

Cuban authorities say soldiers onboard the Caribbean island’s northern coast killed four people and wounded six others after a Florida‑registered speed boat entered Cuban waters and opened fire first, in a rare and violent maritime incident that has prompted a U.S. government response.

Cuba’s Interior Ministry said the confrontation happened roughly 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) northeast of Cayo Falcones, off the country’s north coast. In a brief statement, officials identified one Cuban officer wounded in the exchange and said that Cuban forces acted to defend national sovereignty, but did not provide further details about the circumstances that led up to the shootout.

It remains unclear what the boat and its occupants were doing in Cuban waters at the time of the clash, or who exactly was aboard. The ministry said Cuba was “safeguarding its sovereignty and ensuring stability in the region.”

While in Basseterre, St. Kitts, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that he has been informed of the incident and that U.S. authorities are working to piece together a clearer picture of what happened.

“We have various different elements of the U.S. government that are trying to identify elements of the story that may not be provided to us now,” Rubio said, adding that officials are trying to determine whether the victims were American citizens or permanent residents.

Rubio described the shootout as unusual. “Suffice it to say, it is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that. It’s not something that happens every day,” he said, without elaborating on the identities of those involved.

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said Wednesday afternoon that he had been briefed on the situation by Rubio and that the White House was closely monitoring developments. Speaking to reporters, Vance declined to provide further details but expressed hope that the situation “is not as bad as we fear it could be.”

At this point, neither the U.S. nor Cuban governments have released the names of those killed or wounded, and the incident has raised questions about how and why the boat entered Cuban waters and what sequence of events led to the fatal exchange of gunfire.