US EditionDeadly shooting in Cuban waters highlights obsessions with counter-revolution as US pressure mounts
Cuban soldiers killed four after speedboat occupants fired first; authorities found assault rifles, explosives and combat gear on the Florida-registered vessel, Cuba's government said.
- Cuban soldiers confronted a speedboat carrying 10 people and troops returned fire, killing four, Cuba's government says, spotlighting Cubans living in the U.S. with counter-revolutionary aims.
- Amid rising bilateral tensions, Michel Ortega Casanova was driven by an obsessive desire to change Cuba, his brother said, as the U.S. administration under President Donald Trump tightens the embargo.
- Authorities who boarded the Florida-registered vessel said weapons and tactical gear found aboard included assault rifles, handguns, homemade explosives, bulletproof vests, telescopic sights, and camouflage uniforms, while Cuban authorities named Amijail Sánchez González and Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez as wanted.
- U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. will gather its own information as Miami exile community and activists doubted Cuba's account, surprising families of those on the boat.
- Observers noted historical parallels as the vessel was reported stolen from the Florida Keys 140 miles southwest of Miami amid echoes of the Bay of Pigs and 1959 guerrilla landing.
55 Articles
55 Articles
Hartford Courant
Florida poet ID’d among dead in Cuba shootout fantasized about counter-revolution
By Syra Ortiz Blanes, Miami Herald Before his homeland of Cuba accused him of being a terrorist hellbent on toppling the island’s government, Pavel Alling Peña was a writer. For years, the 45-year-old man shared the poems he wrote and the elaborate videos he made reciting them with his Facebook friends. “Before you, the sun was a parabola of light, a star that cast a unique shadow, my shadow like a symbol of loneliness. Before you, the sea was a…
Helena Independent Record
Deadly shooting in Cuban waters highlights obsessions with counter-revolution
A deadly encounter between Cuban troops and a boat carrying armed expatriates cast a spotlight on Cubans living in the U.S. who harbor aspirations of a counter-revolution.
Cuba and US Take Calm Approach to Investigating Deadly Boat Incident
A chaotic encounter between Cuban security forces and a boatful of men who had set out from Florida this week could have lit a fuse at a time of increased tension between the US and Havana. Instead, calmer heads are prevailing, for now.
Associated Press News
Deadly shooting in Cuban waters highlights obsessions with counter-revolution as US pressure mounts
Word from the Cuban government of a deadly encounter between its troops and a boat carrying armed expatriates is casting a spotlight on Cubans living in the U.S. who still harbor aspirations of a counter-revolution 67 years after a guerrilla uprising ushered in communism.
Marco Rubio: US investigating Cuba speedboat shooting
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the US is investigating an alleged shooting of four heavily armed individuals who tried to “infiltrate” Cuban territory. Cuban authorities said in a statement that the passengers were Cuban residents of the US on a Florida-registered speedboat.
Gunfire in Cuban Waters: How a Florida-Linked Boat Incident Sharpened Diplomatic Tensions
HAVANA, Cuba — Cuban authorities say security forces fatally shot four people aboard a Florida-registered speedboat on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, after the vessel entered Cuban territorial waters in what officials described as an attempted armed “infiltration” of the island. The confrontation, which unfolded near Falcones Cay in Villa Clara province, has triggered parallel investigations in Havana and Washington and further strained already b…
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