A gunfight in Cuba’s territorial waters on Wednesday was not the first time in recent years that the Cuban government has fired on a U.S.-based vessel.
In 2022, Cuba’s Ministry of Interior announced that it had intercepted a total of 13 American speedboats engaged in migrant-smuggling that year and exchanged gunfire with two of them.
In June of that year, one of those two boats was sailing west of Cayo Fragoso, a small island on the northern coast of Cuba, and entered the country’s waters. While being pursued by border guards, a person aboard the boat opened fire at close range with an automatic rifle, the Cuban government said, and an officer was wounded.
The U.S. Coast Guard ultimately intercepted the boat. One of the accused shooters was taken to Cuba nine days after the encounter.
That same day, the Cuban border authorities engaged in a gunfight with another vessel, this one registered in Florida, three nautical miles north of Bahía Honda, a town in the northwest province of Artemisa.
As the Cuban authorities approached, the traffickers opened fire, the Cuban government said. One of the accused traffickers died in the gunfight.
“Once again, regrettable events occur as a consequence of the hostile and irresponsible migration policy of the United States government toward Cuba, which encourages human trafficking operations organized by unscrupulous individuals residing in that country,” the Cuban Ministry of Interior said at the time.
On Wednesday, a vessel approached within one nautical mile northeast of El Pino channel, north of Corralillo, a town in the central Cuban province of Villa Clara, according to a statement from the ministry.
Five Cuban border guard troops on a government boat were approaching the speedboat seeking identification when the people aboard the boat opened fire, wounding a Cuban commander, according to the ministry’s statement and Cuban state media.
The Cuban government said its border troops killed at least four people and wounded six others in a gunfight with the occupants of the Florida-based speedboat.
Frances Robles is a Times reporter covering Latin America and the Caribbean. She has reported on the region for more than 25 years.
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