{"id":177001,"date":"2026-03-03T23:31:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/177001\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T23:31:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:31:50","slug":"tampa-bay-families-still-searching-for-answers-after-cuban-boat-shoot-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/177001\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay families still searching for answers after Cuban boat shoot-out"},"content":{"rendered":"

One week after a shoot-out between 10 men on a Florida-registered boat and Cuban authorities north of the island, the families of three Tampa Bay men involved<\/a> \u2014 two dead, one detained \u2014 are still looking for answers.<\/p>\n

They want to know what happened, whether they can bring their loved ones\u2019remains home and the condition of the man who was arrested.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have any information of any kind,\u201d said Misael Ortega, brother of Michael Ortega Casanova of Tampa, who was killed when the Cuban Coast Guard intercepted the speedboat.<\/p>\n

Ortega Casanova and Pavel Alling Pe\u00f1a of Clearwater were among four men killed, according to family members, while Leordan Enrique Cruz G\u00f3mez of Tampa was detained by Cuban authorities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Friends and relatives gathered Sunday morning at Casa Cuba in Tampa to honor them and share words of support.<\/p>\n

Rolando P\u00e9rez, a close friend of Cruz G\u00f3mez, said that many Cuban dissidents in theUnited States adopted a stronger and more radical stance after a series of massive protests in Havana in 2021.<\/p>\n

Cruz G\u00f3mez was one of them, he said.<\/p>\n

Those demonstrations were amongthe few times in six decades of communist rule on the island that people took to the streets to protest shortages of food and medicine, COVID-19 restrictions and their authoritarian regime. As many as 800 people were indicted and dozens were forced to leave the island, including independent journalists and human rights activists.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeordan was active for many years in peaceful opposition as a Jehovah\u2019s Witness, but unfortunately the doors for that opposition have been closing and the men have been forced to take other pathways,\u201d P\u00e9rez said. \u201cJuly 11 was a turning point for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 700,000 Cubans have immigrated to the United States in the last 20 years. Cruz G\u00f3mez and his family settled in Tampa a decade ago, P\u00e9rez said, where he worked as an industrial painter. He isthe father of four kids.<\/p>\n

P\u00e9rez said he spoke many times with his friend about the risks of an armed operation on the island and the strategy of the Cuban regime to label any efforts by the exile community as criminal or terrorist acts. Cuba\u2019s government said the majority of the 10 people on the boat have a known history of criminal and violent activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeordan was very aware of how dangerous this was,\u201d P\u00e9rez said. \u201cBut the last time we spoke, which was less than a month ago, we didn\u2019t talk about it, but about work, family and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friends and relatives have tried this week to find out what will happen to Cruz G\u00f3mez. However, no one has been able to provide information from Havana or Washington, D.C., P\u00e9rez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult because over there you can get life in prison or even the death penalty. You never know,\u201d P\u00e9rez said.<\/p>\n

Cuban leaders have cracked down on any attempt at rebellion, jailing hundreds of dissidents and tightening security across the island. Cuba is holding at least 1,207 political prisoners, according to the Madrid-based human rights group Prisoners Defenders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue waiting for some type of official information. There is silence on both sides. Everything we know, even if it sounds ironic, is the information that the regime has published,\u201d P\u00e9rez said. \u201cWe know that he is alive and detained, but we have no idea about his health.\u201d<\/p>\n

The uncertainty also affects the family of Alling Pe\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew that he was very aware of what was happening in Cuba, but we never imagined that he was going to take this step,\u201d his brother-in-law Sim\u00f3n Rodr\u00edguez said. He remembered Alling Pe\u00f1a writing, recording videos for special events and working for Uber to support his family.<\/p>\n

He told the Tampa Bay Times that his family has tried to find out whether Alling Pe\u00f1a\u2019s body will be repatriated to Tampa. Alling Pe\u00f1a became a U.S. citizen in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue waiting for some information,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said.<\/p>\n

Alling Pe\u00f1a left his home one day before the incident in the middle of the night, Rodr\u00edguez said. That was the last time they saw him alive. He did not call or send messages through WhatsApp about what he was doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe left with someone because his car was still parked here,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said. \u201cThey came to pick him up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Ortega\u2019s wife, Ivelisse Alicea Figueroa, said her husband was a beloved person who was always willing to help his community and friends. She also asked for information about what will happen to her husband\u2019s remains.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the love of my life; that is why this is very hard to accept,\u201d Figueroa said.<\/p>\n

Their daughter, Daily Ortega, who is eight months pregnant, also asked that her father\u2019s body be returned. He was a truck driver and an American citizen, she said, who lived for more than 20 years in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe lived for his family, his home. He was an honorable man,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Officials with the U.S. State Department did not respond to questions from the Times about whether they are coordinating with Cuba on the repatriation of the remains, or whether they have contacted the families in Tampa or Miami.<\/p>\n

There was also no response from the office of James Uthmeier<\/a>, Florida\u2019s attorney general. Uthmeier ordered prosecutors to work with federal, state and law enforcement partners to start an investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable,\u201d he wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One week after a shoot-out between 10 men on a Florida-registered boat and Cuban authorities north of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[83648,83647,1016,80840,83644,83645,83646,83649,83643,135,1526,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-177001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-alling-pena","9":"tag-cruz-gomez","10":"tag-cuba","11":"tag-cuban-authorities","12":"tag-cuban-dissidents","13":"tag-leordan-enrique-cruz-gomez","14":"tag-michael-ortega","15":"tag-misael-ortega","16":"tag-rolando-perez","17":"tag-tampa","18":"tag-tampa-bay","19":"tag-tampa-headlines","20":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}