BIG PINE KEY, Fla. — On Thursday afternoon, Cuban officials reported Hector Cruz Correa, who Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies listed as a boat-theft suspect, died after a shooting at sea on Wednesday morning off the coast of Cuba’s Villa Clara province.
U.S. federal agents focused on Cruz Correa’s abandoned white 2026 Chevy truck at a construction site in a quiet neighborhood in Monroe County’s Big Pine Key. Investigators wearing Coast Guard Investigative Service jackets searched garbage cans.
As investigations continued in both Cuba and the U.S., Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez released a statement on Thursday morning.
“Cuba will defend itself with determination and firmness against any terrorist or mercenary aggression that seeks to undermine its sovereignty and national stability,” Díaz-Canel wrote in Spanish on X.
On Thursday afternoon, Carlo F. De Cossio, Cuba’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, released a complete list of the four dead and six injured and reported that a man had been misidentified on Wednesday.
“The items seized on the boat included weapons, such as assault rifles, sniper rifles, pistols, Molotov cocktails, and multiple pieces of assault equipment, including night vision equipment, bulletproof vests, assault bayonets, camouflage clothing, ammunition of various calibers, combat rations, communication equipment, and a large number of insignia from counterrevolutionary terrorist organizations,” De Cossio wrote in his statement shared on X by the Cuban Embassy in the U.S.
In Monroe County, a witness and surveillance video place Cruz Correa’s white 2026 Chevy truck at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday at 31532 Ave. G, in Big Pine Key, according to the MCSO deputy’s incident report.
A Big Pine Key resident who lives next to the property reported seeing “a single male got out of the white truck and boarded the vessel,” according to the deputy’s report.
At 1:55 p.m. on Wednesday, the Cuban Embassy in the U.S. used X to report that four people died and six were injured during the shootout involving Cuba’s border patrol and 10 people in a boat registered in Florida as FL7726SH, off the coast of the Villa Clara province.
“The crew of the violating speedboat opened fire on the Cuban personnel, resulting in the injury of the commander of the Cuban vessel,” the Cuban diplomats reported on X on Wednesday afternoon.
Shortly before 4:50 p.m. on Wednesday, in Monroe County, Angel Montera, the owner of the 24-foot boat with registration FL7726SH, told MCSO deputies that he had left his boat at 31532 Ave. G, in Big Pine Key, and he suspected Cruz Correa had stolen it.
While with deputies and Homeland Security Investigations agents, Montera, who doesn’t speak English, said “he was doing construction work on the property,” was allowed to store his boat there, and had last seen it on the dock over a week ago, according to the incident report.
Montera reported that he had worked construction with Cruz Correa, who specialized in tiling. Cruz Correa, who was born in Cuba and lived in Homestead, had “family in Cuba” including “two young daughters,” according to the MCSO deputy’s report.
“We are going to find out exactly what happened here, and then we will respond accordingly,” U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio said on Wednesday.
Bruno Rodríguez, Cuba’s foreign minister, painted the island as the victim.
“Cuba has had to face numerous terrorist and aggressive infiltrations from the U.S. since 1959, at a high cost in lives, injuries, and material damage,” Rodríguez on X in Spanish. “A rigorous investigation is being conducted to clarify the facts. The defense of Cuba’s coasts, of the national territory, and of national security is an ineludible duty.”
Cuban Americans support actions against Cuban government
In Miami’s Little Havana, at La Ventanita in Versailles, Cuban Americans said they welcomed actions against the Cuban communist government, and they mistrusted the report about the fatal shooting.
“Anything against the Cuban government, I am for, because I am for the Cuban people,” Rick Amaro said on Thursday. “I hope they were not there doing business, bringing people.”
In western Miami-Dade County, witnesses reported seeing federal agents on Wednesday afternoon outside of Montera’s home in Miami Lakes. People at the home said Montera was in the Florida Keys.
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