Four killed in firefight between Cuban coastguard and Florida-registered speedboat

France 24 · Feb 25, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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Cuban forces killed four people and wounded six others aboard a Florida-registered speedboat that entered Cuban ​waters ‌on Wednesday and opened fire on a Cuban patrol, ⁠the Cuban interior ministry said. As the coastguard approached, “shots were fired from the boat” wounding the commander of the Cuban vessel, the ministry said in a statement posted on X by the Cuban embassy in Washington. “As a consequence of the confrontation, as of the time of this report, four aggressors on the foreign vessel were killed and six were injured,” the statement said. The wounded ‌foreign attackers were evacuated and received medical attention, the ministry said, adding that it remained committed to “protect its territorial waters”. The “illegal” boat was detected one nautical mile from Falcones Cay in Villa Clara province, according to the ministry. Rising tensions The firefight comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and the island, which lies just 160 kilometres across the Florida Straits. The United States ​has blocked virtually all oil shipments to the island, increasing pressure on the Communist-run government. US ​forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in ​Caracas on January 3, removing ​a key Cuban ally from power. Before Maduro’s capture, Cuba had relied on Venezuela for about half its fuel needs. Faced with an outcry from Caribbean leaders, worried that starving Cuba of oil would cause the economy to quickly collapse, Washington said it would allow shipments of Venezuelan oil for “commercial and humanitarian use”. Interior ministry statement © Cuban interior ministry via the Cuban embassy in the United States (FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)