After Cuba’s government said late Wednesday that a boat of 10 passengers opened fire on its soldiers, NBC6 spoke to one of the men reportedly injured in the shooting in a video call in Spanish.
The island’s government said its soldiers killed four people and wounded six others aboard a Florida-registered boat that had entered Cuban waters and opened fire on the soldiers first, injuring one Cuban officer.
Cuba said the men were armed Cubans living in the U.S. who were trying to infiltrate the island and unleash terrorism.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it was not a U.S. government operation and that he wasn’t “going to speculate about whose boat it was, what they were doing, why they were there, what actually happened.”
One of the men on the list, Roberto Azcorra Consuegra, said he was surprised to know his name was on the list because he is in South Florida and was not on the island.
Azcorra Consuegra denied knowledge of any plans to go to Cuba. But when asked if he knew any of the other names on the list provided by the Cuban government, he replied: “I can’t reveal that information for now.”
“What’s important now is that my name is there, they say they have me detained and I’m here in the United States,” Azcorra Consuegra said.
Asked why he believes the government would provide his name on the list, Azcorra Consuegra said: “They know me. They know me well, they know it all.”
“There’s lots of information out there and to not tell you something that’s false or that could jeopardize other things, it’s better to wait to see what happens,” he continued.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.