Cuban forces killed four exiles and wounded six others who sailed into its waters on a Florida-registered speedboat and opened fire on a Cuban patrol, the country’s government said, at a time of heightened tensions with the US.

Armed Exiles and Escalating Tensions

Cuba’s interior ministry said the group was comprised of anti-government Cubans, some of whom were previously wanted for plotting attacks. They came from the US dressed in camouflage and armed with assault rifles, handguns, home-made explosives, ballistic vests and telescopic sights, it said.

The wounded were evacuated and are receiving medical attention, while a Cuban patrol commander was also wounded, the ministry said. Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman called the incident an “aggressive provocation by the United States” aimed at escalating the situation and triggering a conflict, according to Tass news agency.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told reporters it was not a US operation and that no US government personnel were involved. The Cuban authorities made the US aware of the incident, but the US embassy in Havana would attempt to independently verify what happened, he said.

“We’re not going to base our conclusions on what they’ve [Cuba] told us, and I’m very, very confident that we will know the full story of what happened here,” Rubio said during a trip to the Caribbean nation of St Kitts and Nevis. “As we gather more information, then we’ll be prepared to respond accordingly,” he added.

Florida Investigates, Cuba Identifies Detainees

Florida’s attorney general said he had ordered an investigation into the incident. “The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable,” said James Uthmeier.

Cuba said it had identified the six detainees from the boat, two of whom, Amijail Sanchez Gonzalez and Leordan Enrique Cruz Gomez, it claimed were previously wanted in Cuba on suspicion of planning terrorist acts. 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 it claimed had come from the US to the island to receive the infiltrators. One of the dead was identified as Michel Ortega Casanova. The other three dead had yet to be identified, Cuba said.

Historical Context and Regional Tensions

The confrontation happened in an area where farmland gives way to the Florida Straits. The scattered keys offshore are highly militarised as it is a common spot for Cubans seeking to escape to the US to launch their rafts, and also for people smugglers to land in fast boats.

There were several incidents in 2022, at the height of Cuba’s migration crisis. In June of that year, off Bahía Honda to Havana’s west, Cuban officials said they returned fire against a trafficking boat, killing one. That October, survivors said their boat was rammed by the coast guard nearby. Seven migrants died, including a two-year-old girl, Elizabeth Meizoso.

It is almost exactly 30 years to the day since the Cuban air force killed four people when it shot down two small planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue, a Cuban exile group who were dropping leaflets on Havana. They claimed they were helping people flee the island. That event ended a thaw between the US and Cuba.

The US soon increased its sanctions on the island through the Helms Burton Act that allows US companies that had property confiscated during the 1959 revolution to sue foreign companies using those properties. It is one of the stickiest issues between the countries now, and two such cases are now being heard by the US supreme court.

There are also moves in the US to bring charges against the former Cuban president Raúl Castro for the Brothers to the Rescue killings, in the hope of creating a similar pretext for intervention used for the abduction of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.

The Trump administration has moderately eased an embargo on the delivery of oil from Venezuela to Cuba due to the growing energy and humanitarian crisis on the island that has been exacerbated by a US blockade. The US Treasury Department on Wednesday said it would now allow American and some international companies to resell Venezuelan-origin oil and petroleum products in Cuba, opening a potential lifeline between Cuban households and private businesses that have been devastated by the cut-off of fuel imports from Venezuela.

The unusual guidance was made in “solidarity with the Cuban people” and was targeted at efforts to “improve living conditions and support independent economic activity,” the Treasury Department said.

Tensions have soared between Washington and Havana since the US launched an operation in January to capture Maduro, removing one of Cuba’s chief allies in the region. Administration officials led by Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants and a hawkish opponent of the communist Cuban government, have called for additional US pressure on Havana at a time when the US is flexing its muscle throughout Latin America.

The US cut a big lifeline to Cuba after its operation to capture Maduro, taking control of the export of Caracas’s substantial oil production. Before the raid against Maduro, Venezuela was a key supplier of oil to Cuba. The US has also threatened to slap tariffs on other critical suppliers such as Mexico to halt deliveries of oil and fuel to Cuba.