Four shot dead on US-registered speedboat by border guard, Cuba says

Six other passengers were wounded in the incident, which took place near an island on Cuba's northern coast.

Cuban soldiers confronted a U.S.-registered speedboat carrying 10 individuals, reportedly Cubans living in the U.S. The vessel exchanged gunfire with troops, resulting in four deaths and six injuries. Cuban authorities accused the group of attempting terrorist infiltration. The U.S. denied involvement and began its own investigation, including identifying the passengers’ citizenship status.

Cuban forces killed four exiles and wounded six others who sailed into its waters onboard a Florida-registered speedboat and opened fire on a Cuban patrol, the country’s government said, at a time of heightened tensions with the US. Cuba’s interior ministry said the group comprised anti-government Cubans, some of whom were previously wanted for plotting attacks. They came from the US dressed in camouflage and armed with assault rifles, handguns, homemade explosives, ballistic vests and telescopic sights, it said. The wounded were evacuated and receiving medical attention, while a Cuban patrol commander was also wounded, the ministry said. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told reporters it was not a US operation and that no US government personnel were involved. The Cuban authorities made the US aware of the incident, but the US embassy in Havana would attempt to independently verify what happened, he said. “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. “As we gather more information, then we’ll be prepared to respond accordingly,” he said. “Suffice to say it is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that.”

Cuban forces killed four people on an American speedboat after it opened fire on Cuban border agents Wednesday morning, the country’s Interior Ministry said. As the Florida-registered vessel came within a nautical mile of Cuba’s northern coast, the country’s border guard troops approached and asked for identification, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The speedboat crew opened fire on the Cuban troops, injuring the vessel’s commander, the ministry said. Cuban forces returned fire. Four people on the speedboat were killed and six wounded, the ministry said. The wounded were evacuated to receive medical attention. The Washington Post could not independently confirm Cuba’s version of events. The U.S. State Department declined to comment. It was not immediately clear why the boat would have been traveling so close to Cuba’s north-central Villa Clara province. Cuban authorities are investigating, the ministry said. “In the face of current challenges, Cuba reaffirms its determination to protect its territorial waters, based on the principle that national defense is a fundamental pillar of the Cuban State in safeguarding its sovereignty and ensuring stability in the region,” the ministry said.

On February 25, 2026, a deadly shootout occurred in Cuban waters when a Florida-registered speedboat allegedly carrying armed Cuban nationals from the U.S. attempted to infiltrate Cuba with terrorist intentions. According to the Cuban Interior Ministry, the boat approached Cuban territory near Corralillo, Villa Clara, and opened fire on border guards, prompting a gunfight in which four of the ten passengers were killed and six were wounded and detained. The Cuban government seized weapons, gear, and other combat paraphernalia from the boat, asserting its actions as protecting national sovereignty. The individuals on board were identified by Cuba as Cuban-Americans with criminal histories, with one deceased man, Michel Ortega Casanova, described by family as obsessed with freeing Cuba. U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance, stated the incident was not a U.S. operation but acknowledged the seriousness and are investigating independently. The clash adds tension to already strained U.S.-Cuba relations, worsened by recent oil supply cuts from Venezuela and economic sanctions under the Trump administration. Similar incidents have occurred before, exacerbating narratives of U.S.-backed destabilization efforts, while Florida lawmakers call for stronger responses and investigations.

Cuba’s coastguard shot dead four people and injured six others travelling in a US-registered speedboat in an exchange of fire off the Cuban coast on Wednesday, the interior ministry in Havana said. The “illegal” Florida-registered boat was detected one nautical mile from Falcones Cay in Villa Clara province, the ministry said in a brief statement. As a coastguard vessel approached to identify the boat “shots were fired from the boat”, injuring the commander of the Cuban vessel, the ministry 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,” the ministry said, adding that the injured were evacuated and received medical aid. The ministry said that it remained committed to “protecting its territorial waters”.