{"id":181416,"date":"2026-03-06T23:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T23:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/181416\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T23:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T23:23:07","slug":"cuba-reports-fifth-death-after-florida-flagged-speedboat-fires-on-soldiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/181416\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuba reports fifth death after Florida-flagged speedboat fires on soldiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

HAVANNA (AP) \u2014 Cuba said a fifth person has died as a consequence of a fatal shootout last month involving a Florida-flagged speedboat that allegedly<\/a> opened fire on soldiers in waters off the island nation\u2019s north coast.<\/p>\n

The island\u2019s interior ministry said late Thursday in a statement that Roberto \u00c1lvarez \u00c1vila died on March 4 as a result of his injuries. It added that the remaining injured detainees \u201ccontinue to receive specialized medical care according to their health status.\u201d<\/p>\n

Authorities in Cuba said that on Feb. 26, Cuban soldiers confronted a speedboat carrying 10 people as the vessel approached the island and opened fire on the troops. They said the passengers were armed Cubans living in the U.S. who were trying to infiltrate the island and \u201cunleash terrorism\u201d. Cuba said its soldiers killed four people and wounded six others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe statements made by the detainees themselves, together with a series of investigative procedures, reinforce the evidence against them,\u201d the Cuban interior ministry said in its statement, adding that \u201cnew elements are being obtained that establish the involvement of other individuals based in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

See also: Justice Department releases Epstein files with uncorroborated Trump accusation<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Cuba said it had filed terrorism charges against six suspects that were on the speedboat. The government unveiled items said to have been found on the boat, including a dozen high-powered weapons, more than 12,800 pieces of ammunition and 11 pistols.<\/p>\n

Cuban authorities have provided few details about the shooting, but said the boat was roughly 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) northeast of Cayo Falcones, off the country\u2019s north coast. They also provided the boat\u2019s registration number, but The Associated Press was unable to readily verify the details because boat registrations are not public in the state of Florida.<\/p>\n

The shooting threatened to increase tensions between U.S. President Donald Trump and Cuban authorities. The island\u2019s economy was until recently largely kept economically afloat by Venezuela\u2019s oil, which is now in doubt after a U.S. military operation deposed then-Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HAVANNA (AP) \u2014 Cuba said a fifth person has died as a consequence of a fatal shootout last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-181416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181416","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=181416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}