What to know about the boat shooting in Cuban waters that killed 4

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica (AP) — A speedboat carrying 10 people approached Cuba’s north shore and opened fire on Cuban soldiers when they confronted the vessel, according to the Caribbean island’s government.

Troops returned fire, killing four people and wounding six others who were detained Wednesday after the encounter.

The Ministry of the Interior said the people in the boat were Cubans living in the U.S. and accused them of trying to infiltrate the country to unleash terrorism. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it was not a U.S. government operation.

“A thorough investigation is underway to clarify the facts,” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez wrote Thursday on X. “The defense of Cuba’s coasts, national territory, and national security is an inescapable duty.”

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Thursday that Cuba “does not attack or threaten.”

“We have stated this repeatedly, and we reiterate it today: Cuba will defend itself with determination and firmness against any terrorist or mercenary aggression that seeks to undermine its sovereignty and national stability,” he wrote on X.

Rubio said the American government was gathering its own information, including whether the people were U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said it was pursuing answers “through every legal and diplomatic channel available,” adding that “facts remain unclear and conflicting.”

Here’s what to know about the confrontation:

Who were the people aboard the speedboat?

The Cuban government has identified seven of the 10 passengers.

It said that two of them, Amijail Sánchez González and Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez, are wanted by Cuban authorities “based on their involvement in the promotion, planning, organization, financing, support or commission” of terrorism.

It identified the others as Conrado Galindo Sariol, José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló, Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara and Roberto Azcorra Consuegra.

Cuba’s government said that one of the four killed was Michel Ortega Casanova. His brother Misael Ortega Casanova told The Associated Press that his sibling had developed an “obsessive and diabolical” quest for Cuba’s freedom given the suffering they endured on the island before moving to the U.S. He said his brother was an American citizen who lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years.

Meanwhile, Galindo Sariol, another passenger, was identified as a former political prisoner in a 2025 interview with Martí Noticias, a U.S.-based news site that has long called for a change of government in Cuba.

Where was the boat registered and what was aboard?

The Cuban government said it was a Florida-registered speedboat and that officials who searched it found assault rifles, handguns, homemade explosives, bulletproof vests, telescopic sights and camouflage uniforms.

The AP was unable to verify details because boat registrations are not public in Florida.

How unusual are these types of confrontation?

The island’s foreign minister wrote Thursday on X that Cuba has faced “numerous terrorist and aggressive infiltrations” from the U.S. since 1959, “with a high cost in lives, injuries and material damage.”

The most famous attempt involving Cuban exiles was the Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961.

The CIA had trained a group of exiles under the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower that was led by José Miró Cardona, a former member of Fidel Castro ’s government and head of the Cuban Revolutionary Council in the U.S.

The failed invasion that occurred under former President John F. Kennedy led to the surrender of some 1,200 brigade members, while more than 100 others were killed.

Another high-profile encounter occurred on Feb. 24, 1996, when Cuba’s air force shot down two unarmed civilian airplanes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based organization. Four men were killed following the attack that the International Civil Aviation Organization said occurred over international waters.

According to extracts from the radio communications between the MiG-29 and a military control tower published by the Organization of American States, the MiG-29 identified one of the planes and said, “Hell, give us the authorization! We got it!”

The tower responded: “Authorized to destroy.”

When the second plane was shot down, the MIG-29 said, “The other is destroyed. Homeland or death, you bastards!” in a reference to the famed Cuban revolutionary cry.

In 2022, several incidents were reported in Cuban waters involving an exchange of gunfire and arrests but no apparent casualties.

It’s not unusual for skirmishes to erupt between Cuba’s Coast Guard and U.S.-flagged speedboats in Cuban waters. In past years, some of those U.S.-flagged boats were laden with unidentified items headed toward the island, or they were going to pick up Cubans to smuggle them into the U.S.

How might this affect US-Cuba relations?

The shooting threatens to increase tensions between the two countries after President Donald Trump ‘s administration has already having taken an increasingly aggressive stance toward Cuba.

When the U.S. attacked Venezuela and arrested its leader on Jan. 3, oil shipments to Cuba that were largely keeping the island afloat were halted.

Then Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 29 that would impose a tariff on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba, which recently implemented austere fuel-saving measures.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department slightly eased restrictions on the sale of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, but the island’s energy and economic crisis is expected to persist.