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Cuba\u2019s Ministry of the Interior has announced that its border patrol forces engaged in a shootout with a speedboat from the United States, killing four people.<\/p>\n
In a statement<\/a> published on social media, the Cuban government described the boat as having a licence plate from the state of Florida, a peninsula roughly 145 kilometres, or 90 miles, from the island.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n It also accused the speedboat of firing the first shot, precipitating an exchange of gunfire.<\/p>\n \u201cThe crew of the violating speedboat opened fire on the Cuban personnel, resulting in the injury of the commander of the Cuban vessel,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n \u201cAs of the time of this report, four aggressors on the foreign vessel were killed, and six were injured.\u201d<\/p>\n It is so far unclear what activities the speedboat was engaged in, and the identities of those on board remain unknown.<\/p>\n The shooting took place on Wednesday morning, offshore from the barrier island Cayo Falcones in Cuba\u2019s north-central Villa Clara province.<\/p>\n But Wednesday\u2019s incident is not the first time that Cuban authorities have engaged in a gunfight after allegedly intercepting US boats entering its territory.<\/p>\n Still, the latest example could prove to be particularly contentious, given the heightened tensions over the last two months between the US and Cuba.<\/p>\n Already, there has been a political backlash in the US, particularly within the right-wing Republican Party.<\/p>\n Florida\u2019s attorney general, James Uthmeier, announced his state would open a probe into the incident, amid calls for accountability in the US Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve directed the Office of Statewide Prosecution to work with our federal, state, and law enforcement partners to begin an investigation,\u201d Uthmeier wrote<\/a> on social media.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n An investigation led by Cuban officials remains ongoing. The island\u2019s Interior Ministry, however, framed the border patrol\u2019s actions as part of its larger defence of Cuba\u2019s national sovereignty.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 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,\u201d the ministry wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n The shootout comes at a delicate time for Cuba\u2019s international relations, as it becomes increasingly isolated \u2014 and as the US threatens military action in Latin America.<\/p>\n One of Cuba\u2019s closest regional allies, for instance, has seen upheaval at the hands of US forces. On January 3, US President Donald Trump authorised an early-morning military operation to\u00a0abduct then-President Nicolas Maduro, transporting him to the US for trial.<\/p>\n Shortly after the attack, Trump and his officials issued statements suggesting they would welcome the fall of Cuba\u2019s communist government.<\/p>\n \u201cLook, if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I\u2019d be concerned,\u201d US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a longtime anti-Cuba hawk, told reporters.<\/p>\n Trump, meanwhile, was more blunt. \u201cCuba looks like it\u2019s ready to fall,\u201d he said in the immediate aftermath of the Venezuela attack.<\/p>\n In the weeks since, the US announced it would cut off supplies of Venezuelan money and oil to Cuba, and on January 29, it imposed an oil blockade on the island, threatening Cuba\u2019s trading partners with sanctions.<\/p>\n In an executive order<\/a>, Trump accused Cuba of representing an \u201cunusual and extraordinary threat\u201d to the US, citing its ties with adversarial governments like those in Iran, China and Russia.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Government of Cuba has taken extraordinary actions that harm and threaten the United States,\u201d Trump wrote in the order. \u201cThe regime aligns itself with \u2014 and provides support for \u2014 numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups, and malign actors adverse to the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n Cuba is one of several countries that have been subject to a \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign under Trump, who has sought to exert increasing influence over the Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n Relations with the US, however, have long been tense. As far back as 1958, Cuba came under a US arms embargo that was later expanded in the 1960s to a full trade embargo, spanning all products and services.<\/p>\n The embargo cut Cuba off from one of its closest trading partners at the time. Officials and rights experts have also argued that the historically long embargo worsened humanitarian conditions on the island, which has suffered from a weakened economy and supply shortages.<\/p>\n The US government, however, has cited a history of human rights abuses on the island as a reason for maintaining economic sanctions against Cuba.<\/p>\n In 2021, during Trump\u2019s first term, Cuba\u2019s Ministry of the Interior and its leader, Minister Lazaro Alvarez Casas, were both sanctioned<\/a> as \u201cperpetrators of serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world\u201d.<\/p>\n The Cuban government has faced decades of accusations that it restricts free speech and violently represses dissent.<\/p>\n It also has a history of engaging in violent shootouts with boats it accuses of violating its territorial sovereignty.<\/p>\n The political repression, combined with economic turmoil, has forced many Cubans to flee the country over the past six decades.<\/p>\n During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the early 2020s, for instance, one of Cuba\u2019s main industries, tourism, saw a stark drop in revenue.<\/p>\n That, in turn, caused dire shortages of basic supplies, prompting nearly two million people \u2014 more than 10 percent of the population \u2014 to leave the island.<\/p>\n But the Cuban government has, at times, responded with violence to irregular migration from the island.<\/p>\n In June 2022, for instance, Cuba reported two shootouts in quick succession involving speedboats accused of smuggling its citizens abroad. One, on June 18 of that year, resulted in an officer wounded. A second, on June 27, resulted in the death of a person on board the speedboat.<\/p>\n In such cases, the Cuban government has typically framed the violence as spurred by the actions of the speedboats in question. It has also cited the need to protect its territory and stability.<\/p>\n There are activist networks, particularly in the large Cuban American community in South Florida, that have worked for decades to help refugees escape from the island.<\/p>\n But they, too, have experienced losses. One of the most famous incidents came in 1996, when a small plane piloted by the activist group Brothers to the Rescue was shot down by the Cuban military.<\/p>\n Florida politicians were among the first to condemn Wednesday\u2019s shooting. Congressmember Carlos Gimenez, a Republican who represents the Florida Keys and southern Miami, indicated that the incident \u201craises serious concerns about the use of lethal force\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cUnited States authorities must determine whether any of the victims were US citizens or legal residents and establish exactly what occurred,\u201d he wrote in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gimenez, who was born in Havana and fled the Cuban Revolution, then called for an end to Cuba\u2019s communist government.<\/p>\n \u201cThe regime in Cuba must be relegated to the dustbin of history for its countless crimes against humanity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Tense relations with the US<\/h2>\n
History of shootouts<\/h2>\n