Cuba says it has killed four heavily armed exiles on a US boat

BarcelonaThe Cuban Coast Guard killed four crew members of a speedboat from the United States on Wednesday. Havana claims they were Cuban exiles. Six other men on the same boat were wounded, as was one of the coast guards. The Cuban Interior Ministry maintains they were dissidents, some of whom were wanted by the regime as conspirators. They allegedly attempted to enter the country dressed in camouflage and armed with assault rifles, pistols, and homemade explosives. According to the Interior Ministry, the vessel failed to comply with orders to stop, as it was "illegally" in Cuban territorial waters. When the agents approached the American boat to identify the crew, they opened fire on the Cuban officers, wounding the commander. In a brief statement, the Cuban Ministry of the Interior detailed that the incident occurred in waters near the province of Villa Clara and that the American vessel was registered in Florida, USA, with the following identification: FL7726SH. For now, Cuban authorities have not provided details about the identities of those traveling on the vessel or their possible motives.

The interception of speedboats is common on the northern coasts of the country. The Cuban government often claims that these vessels are used, according to the executive branch, to pick up people who want to migrate and considers these actions "territorial violations and human trafficking."

In recent years, several incidents like the one that occurred this Wednesday have been recorded. Two of the most notable were in 2022. On one occasion, a speedboat coming from the US fired on Cuban border guards near Villa Clara, wounding a Cuban officer. The other notable incident occurred in Honda Bay, when a speedboat also heading to the island from the US collided with a vessel from the Ministry of the Interior and sank, resulting in the deaths of several crew members.

Tension with the US

The incident comes amid heightened tensions between the US and Cuba, after Washington escalated decades-long sanctions against the Caribbean nation, cut off imports of Venezuelan oil into Havana—essential to the Cuban economy—and threatened tariffs and sanctions against countries that supply it. Prior to the incident with the US vessel, the White House announced a slight easing of the embargo, but only for the private sector. From now on, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control will allow transactions that "support the Cuban people" as long as they do not involve the Cuban government, and will issue licenses so that companies wishing to trade Venezuelan crude to Cuba can do so without being sanctioned. However, these transactions will be subject to certain restrictions, such as depositing sales proceeds into an account controlled by Washington.