(The speedboat was later said to be stolen in the US. I read one article that said the FBI went to visit the man who owned the boat but I haven't heard anything about what happened there. An official said the firefight involved a US civilian boat working to get relatives out of Cuba, adding that the vessel was not a US Naval or Coast Guard boat. Rubio confirmed the boat was not part of a US government operation.)
Four passengers of a Florida-registered speedboat killed by Cuban border guards were all born in the communist island nation but lived in the US, the Cuban Embassy said Wednesday night.
Cuba’s interior ministry claimed the country’s law enforcement opened fire on the boat after it entered their waters for an “armed infiltration” attempt.
The vessel was carrying a total of 10 “armed” people who Cuban officials claim “intended to carry out an infiltration for terrorist purposes.”
The Interior Ministry alleged assault rifles, handguns, Molotov cocktails and other weapons were found onboard the speedboat.
Four of the passengers were gunned down by Cuban border troopers in a shootout.
The six injured survivors were identified as Amijail Sánchez González, Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez, Conrado Galindo Sariol, José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló, Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara, and Roberto Azcorra Consuegra, according to the embassy.
The embassy additionally identified one of the deceased as Michel Ortega Casanova.
An eleventh Cuban national, Duniel Hernández Santos, was also arrested “within national territory,” though it’s unclear if he was on the boat with the other purported infiltrators.
Santos was allegedly “sent from the United States” to receive armed seafarers on Cuba’s shore.
The embassy claimed he “confessed to his role” in the operation.
González and Gómez were both listed on Cuba’s national wanted list for their suspected participation “in the promotion, planning, organization, financing, support or execution of terrorist acts in Cuba or abroad,” the embassy said.
An official told The New York Times that the people on the incoming vessel – a 24-foot power boat manufactured in 1981 – were working to get relatives out of Cuba.
When asked for comment about the citizenship of those aboard the speedboat, the State Department referred The Post to earlier comments made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio had vowed that the US would “find out exactly what happened” and “respond accordingly.”
He downplayed Cuba’s initial version of the attack, saying the US would find its “own information on this.”
“We’re not gonna base our conclusions on what they told us,” he said.
Rubio conceded “it is highly unusual to see shootouts in the open sea like that. That’s not something that happens every day.”
The shootout took place just one nautical mile northeast of the El Pino channel, which is directly south of Florida and off the north side of Cuba. It is regularly patrolled by the Cuban government.
Cuba’s investigation into the alleged attack is still ongoing.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier previously confirmed that the state’s Office of Statewide Prosecution would also be looking into the situation.
https://nypost.com/2026/02/25/us-news/four-armed-speedboat-passengers-killed-by-cuban-border-guards-lived-in-the-us-officials-say/
