Cuban troops 'kill four' in shootout with US-registered speedboat - everything we know
Cuba says the group came from the US dressed in camouflage and armed with assault rifles, handguns, homemade explosives, ballistic vests and telescopic sights
Cuban exiles who are largely concentrated in Miami have long dreamed of overthrowing the Cuban government or seeing it fall and have in the past plotted against the government that was established by the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, who died in 2016 at age 90.
Cuban coast guard ships docked at the port of Havana on February 25, 2026
AFP via Getty Images
Cuban exiles with support and financing from the CIA carried out the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, an event that strengthened Castro while pushing him closer to his backers in the Soviet Union. Other Cuban paramilitaries have attempted or carried out acts of sabotage in decades past.
Cuba said it identified the six detainees from the boat, two of whom were previously wanted in Cuba on suspicion of planning terrorist acts against Cuba: Amijail Sanchez Gonzalez and Leordan Enrique Cruz Gomez.
The other four were identified as Conrado Galindo Sariol, Jose Manuel Rodriguez Castello, Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara and Roberto Azcorra Consuegra.
In addition, Cuba said it detained another Cuban man in Cuban territory, Duniel Hernandez Santos, who had come from the United States to the island in order to receive the infiltrators.
One of the dead was identified as Michel Ortega Casanova, while the other three dead had yet to be identified, Cuba said.
The speedboat came within one nautical mile of a channel on Falcones Cay, on the north coast of Cuba about 120 miles east of Havana, when it was approached by five members of a Cuban border patrol unit, Cuba said.
The speedboat then opened fire, wounding the commander of the Cuban vessel, the statement said.
Florida politicians called for separate investigations, saying they did not trust the Cuban account.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said he was ordering prosecutors to open an investigation in conjunction with other state and federal law enforcement partners.
US Representative Carlos Gimenez, a Republican whose district includes the southern tip of Florida, called for a federal investigation, saying he had asked the US State Department and military to look into the matter.
“United States authorities must determine whether any of the victims were U.S. citizens or legal residents and establish exactly what occurred,” Mr Gimenez said.
