Secretary of state Marco Rubio has said the US will launch an investigation after Cuba reported its forces killed four people and wounded six when a Florida-registered speedboat crossed into Cuban waters.
Rubio said that Cuban authorities on Wednesday informed the US that its soldiers shot those on board after the passengers opened fire on them.
The shootout comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Havana in the aftermath of the US’s capture of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, whose regime supported Cuba with oil.
“We’re going to have our own information on this, and we’re going to figure out exactly what happened,” Rubio told reporters in Saint Kitts and Nevis, adding that the US would not rely solely on Cuba’s version of events.
He declined to speculate about what transpired but said there was “a wide range” of potential explanations, adding: “Suffice it to say, it is highly unusual to see shoot-outs at open sea like that.”
A US official said on Thursday that the speedboat’s owner “alleged that the vessel was stolen by an employee”, and that at least two of those on board were American citizens, including one of the deceased. A third person had a US visa, and others might be US permanent residents, the official added.
The US official said that some on board the boat had criminal records, and that an injured American citizen was receiving medical care in Cuba.
The Cuban interior ministry said on Wednesday that the “10 armed persons”, all of whom were Cuban residents in the US, had been attempting to carry out a “terrorist infiltration” plot when they were intercepted.
When five Cuban troops approached the boat, the crew on the Florida-registered vessel opened fire and injured a soldier.
“Assault rifles, handguns, improvised explosive devices (Molotov cocktails), bulletproof vests, telescopic sights, and camouflage uniforms were seized,” the ministry said.
Alongside the six people captured onboard the vessel, the ministry also said that a Cuban national who had been “sent from the United States to guarantee the arrival of the armed infiltration” had been arrested in the country.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on Thursday: “Cuba does not attack or threaten . . . Cuba will defend its sovereignty and national stability with determination and firmness against any terrorist or mercenary aggression.”
As tensions rise with the US, Rubio said that Cuba’s “status quo is unsustainable” and that the country “needs to change dramatically”.
Earlier in the day, the US said it would allow Venezuelan oil to be resold to Cuba through private-sector intermediaries, providing a lifeline to the Caribbean island amid a desperate fuel shortage and humanitarian crisis.
The US Treasury department’s sanctions enforcement body, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, said it would approve applications from third parties to resell Venezuelan crude and refined products to Cuba via the nation’s fledgling private sector.
Ofac said: “This favourable licensing policy is directed towards transactions that support the Cuban people, including the Cuban private sector.”
The agency said the new licensing policy would not cover transactions “involving, or for the benefit, of any persons or entities associated with the Cuban military, intelligence services or other government institutions”.
The state controls a wide swath of the nation’s economy, with the “non-state” sector accounting for just 55 per cent of retail sales of goods and services in 2024, according to government figures.
Rubio said that “it’s always been legal to sell to the private sector in Cuba”. But if the US catches the private sector “playing games and diverting to the regime or to the military . . . those licences will be cancelled”.
Since Maduro’s capture, Washington has taken control of Venezuelan oil sales, with millions of barrels being stockpiled by trading houses, including Vitol and Trafigura, causing storage facilities across the Caribbean to fill up in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, Cuba, which produces only enough fuel to meet 40 per cent of national demand, is grappling with severe shortages, leaving power plants and home generators idle amid a deepening humanitarian crisis.
Hospitals have reduced operations in recent weeks as disease and hunger surge, while drivers queue for hours in the hope of filling their tanks. Blackouts are a daily reality across much of the island and airlines, deprived of jet fuel, have grounded flights.
A decline in tourism and agriculture, alongside several countries scrapping their contracts with Cuban doctors, has aggravated the crisis, depriving Havana of foreign exchange to pay for imports.
In response to the crisis, Havana, which has long controlled the oil trade along with much of the economy, this month allowed private businesses to import fuel.
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As a result of loosening restrictions, private importers are booming, bringing in food and solar panels as well as some luxury goods to those who can afford the high prices they command.
Mexico had also provided Cuba with oil, though it paused deliveries after US President Donald Trump last month threatened tariffs on countries that supply Havana with fuel.
Ryan Berg, head of the Americas programme at the Washington think-tank CSIS, said that Ofac’s move on Wednesday aligned with the Trump administration’s aim to liberalise the Cuban economy.
“One of the ways to open the door ever so slightly is to build out the Cuban private sector, and the rules put in place on oil imports are in service of that goal,” he said.
Additional reporting by Abigail Hauslohner in Washington.