Officials in Havana said six others were injured and a Cuban commander was hurt.
HAVANA, CUBA — Cuba’s government said Wed., Feb. 25, 2026, that its soldiers killed four people aboard a speedboat registered in Florida after an exchange of gunfire in Cuban territorial waters off the island’s north coast. Officials said six other people on the vessel were injured and a Cuban officer was also hurt.
The rare deadly clash immediately drew political backlash in Florida and added strain to an already tense relationship between the United States and Cuba. Cuban officials said the speedboat entered Cuban waters and opened fire when border troops approached to identify it. U.S. officials did not immediately confirm Cuba’s account, and key details remained unclear, including who was aboard, why the boat was there, and what happened in the moments before shots were fired.
Cuba’s Interior Ministry said the confrontation happened Wednesday morning near Cayo Falcones, an area off Cuba’s north coast. The ministry said the boat was about 1 mile northeast of Cayo Falcones when Cuban forces encountered it. Cuban officials described those on the vessel as “aggressors” and said they fired on Cuban personnel as a unit of border guard troops moved in to demand identification. The ministry said a commander on the Cuban vessel was injured during the exchange. Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, said on social media that he had directed prosecutors to work with federal, state and law enforcement partners to begin an investigation into what happened.
In a statement released by Cuban authorities, officials said four people on the speedboat were killed and six were wounded. The injured were evacuated and received medical assistance, Cuba said, without identifying the victims or describing their conditions. The government said it was acting to protect the country’s sovereignty and maintain stability in the region. Cuban officials provided what they described as the boat’s Florida registration number, but information about ownership and passengers was not immediately available. Cuban authorities did not say whether weapons were recovered, what type of firearms were used, or whether any Cuban personnel other than the commander were injured.
The incident quickly reverberated across Florida politics. Uthmeier, the state’s attorney general, wrote online that Cuban authorities “cannot be trusted” and said his office would pursue accountability. Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez, a Florida Republican and a longtime critic of Cuba’s communist government, condemned the killings and accused the Cuban government of murder. “This regime must be relegated to the dust bin of history!” Gimenez wrote in a post. The comments underscored how any violent encounter in the Florida Straits can become politically charged, especially when details are sparse and the governments involved offer sharply different narratives.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance said later Wednesday that he had been briefed on the incident by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and that the White House was monitoring the situation. Vance did not provide details about what the administration knew about the boat or those aboard it. “Hopefully it’s not as bad as we fear it could be,” he said. The Pentagon declined to comment and referred questions to the State Department. Other U.S. agencies that typically operate in the region, including the Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security, did not immediately respond publicly to requests for comment about the encounter, the boat’s registration, or any potential U.S. investigation.
Cuban officials said the speedboat was registered in Florida and entered Cuban territorial waters near the island’s north coast, a route that runs along busy maritime corridors between Cuba and the Florida Keys. The area around Cayo Falcones lies in waters that can be reached in a few hours by fast boats departing South Florida, and it has long been a focus for Cuban border forces watching for trafficking, smuggling and unauthorized migration. Cuban authorities did not say whether the speedboat had attempted to land, whether it was carrying cargo, or whether it had been tracked before it crossed into Cuban waters.
Such unanswered questions matter because maritime incidents in the region can involve a range of activity, from recreational boating to human smuggling and contraband runs. Cuban and U.S. authorities have, at times, cooperated on interdictions and investigations tied to drug trafficking and migration. In recent years, that coordination has been uneven, and political tensions have shaped how the two countries communicate about enforcement actions at sea. Cuban officials said the two sides once collaborated on stopping drug smuggling and other crimes but no longer do so in the same way, a shift that can complicate joint fact-finding after incidents that occur near disputed or sensitive waters.
Cuba’s Interior Ministry said investigations by “competent authorities” were continuing to clarify the events. Officials did not say whether the speedboat was seized, whether the wounded were detained, or whether criminal charges would be filed under Cuban law. The ministry also did not provide names, ages or hometowns for the dead or injured, and it did not say whether foreign consular officials had been notified. Cuban authorities did not describe the precise sequence of commands, warnings or maneuvers that preceded the exchange of fire, leaving open basic questions about whether the boat attempted to flee, whether it complied with instructions, and how close the vessels were when gunfire started.
Florida officials, meanwhile, signaled they were preparing their own parallel effort to piece together what happened. Uthmeier’s announcement of a state-level investigation suggested Florida would try to identify who was on the boat and what they were doing near Cuba, even though the encounter occurred in waters Cuba says are under its jurisdiction. The state does not typically lead investigations of incidents beyond U.S. territory, but state prosecutors can coordinate with federal agencies in cases involving Florida-registered vessels or Florida residents. Officials have not said whether any missing-person reports or family notifications in Florida were connected to the incident.
Maritime skirmishes between Cuban forces and U.S.-flagged speedboats are not unheard of, but killings are uncommon in public reports in recent years. Authorities and analysts have long noted that fast boats can be used for smuggling operations, including attempts to move people from Cuba toward Florida or to deliver goods to the island outside legal channels. Cuba’s government has repeatedly said it will respond forcefully to incursions into its waters, while U.S. authorities often emphasize maritime safety and enforcement within U.S. jurisdiction. In this case, Cuba’s description of passengers opening fire raised the stakes, but independent confirmation of that claim was not immediately available.
The setting added to the intensity of the moment. The waters between Cuba and Florida are heavily patrolled, and small islands and channels along Cuba’s north coast can become flashpoints when a vessel approaches without clear intent. Cuban authorities said the speedboat was within about a mile of Cayo Falcones when it was confronted. In Florida, some reports placed the location more than 100 miles southeast of Marathon in the Keys, highlighting how close the encounter was to a major U.S. boating region while still occurring in waters Cuba described as its own.
Diplomatic consequences were also uncertain. Cuba’s government framed the shooting as a matter of national defense and sovereignty, language that often signals limited willingness to accept outside scrutiny. U.S. officials, for their part, were cautious in early statements, suggesting they were still gathering facts about the boat and any U.S. connections. If U.S. citizens were among the dead or injured, the case could quickly escalate into a consular and diplomatic dispute, including requests for access to survivors, medical updates, and the return of remains. As of Wednesday night, Cuba had not said whether any Americans were among the victims.
For families and communities on both sides of the Florida Straits, the most basic details remained unsettled: who was on the speedboat, why it entered Cuban waters, and whether the confrontation was avoidable. Cuban officials said they evacuated the wounded for medical treatment and continued investigating the circumstances. Florida officials said they would work with law enforcement partners to investigate. The White House said it was monitoring the situation, but offered no timeline for a fuller briefing.
Author note: Last updated February 25, 2026.