4 Shot Dead on FL Boat by Cuban Border Guards

• M.A. Dworkin

North Coast Cuba - Four people who entered Cuban waters on a U.S. Florida registered speedboat were shot dead by Cuban border guards off Cuba’s north coast. Cuba’s interior ministry claims the speedboat’s passengers, who were coming from Florida, opened fire on a coast guard vessel carrying five members of the ministry’s border guard.

In a statement posted on X, the ministry said the Florida-registered vessel - with the registration number FL772SH - was detected one mile northeast of Cayo Falcones, in the country’s central Villa Clara province on Wednesday morning, February 25, 2026. When the Cuban boat approached the vessel for identification, “the crew of the violating speedboat opened fire” and wounded the Cuban Commander,” the statement read. “As a consequence of the confrontation, as of the time of the report, four aggressors on the foreign vessel were killed and six injured.”

Those injured were evacuated and given medical assistance.

The Cuban embassy in the U.S. said in a post on social media: “in the face of current challenges, Cuba reaffirms its determination to protect its territorial waters, based on the principle that national defense is a fundamental pillar of the Cuban state in safeguarding its sovereignty and ensuring stability in the region.”

The confrontation happened in an area where gentle farmland gives way to the Florida straits in bleached beaches under swaying palm trees. The scattered keys off Cuba’s shores are highly militarized as it is a common spot for Cubans seeking to escape to the U.S. to launch their rafts, and also for people smugglers to land in fast boats.

Florida Representative Carlos Gimenez, a Cuban-American former Mayor of Miami, said on X that he is demanding an urgent investigation into what he termed a massacre, adding that U.S. authorities must determine whether any of the victims were U.S. citizens or legal residents.

James Uthmeier, Florida’s Attorney General, said on X, that he has ordered prosecutors to work with federal, state and law enforcement partners to start an investigation.

“The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable,” Mr. Uthmeier wrote. 

The incident comes amid increased tensions between the U.S. and Cuba which is facing a deepening fuel crisis that has worsened by the U.S. blocking oil shipments from Venezuela, a long-standing Cuban ally in the region.