Cuba says 4 killed in speedboat shooting were attempting to infiltrate
the country
[February 26, 2026]
By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ, DÁNICA COTO and MATTHEW LEE
HAVANA (AP) — Cuba’s government said late Wednesday that the 10
passengers on a boat that opened fire on its soldiers were armed Cubans
living in the U.S. who were trying to infiltrate the island and unleash
terrorism.
The announcement came hours after Cuba said its soldiers killed four
people and wounded six others aboard a Florida-registered speed boat
that had entered Cuban waters and opened fire on the soldiers first,
injuring one Cuban officer.
Cuba’s government said the majority of the 10 people on the boat “have a
known history of criminal and violent activity.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had told reporters earlier that he
was made aware of the incident and that the U.S. is now gathering its
own information to determine if the victims were American citizens or
permanent residents.
“We have various different elements of the U.S. government that are
trying to identify elements of the story that may not be provided to us
now,” Rubio said while at the airport in Basseterre, St. Kitts, where he
was attending a regional summit with Caribbean leaders.
The Cuban government identified two of the boat passengers as Amijail
Sánchez González and Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez, who are wanted by Cuban
authorities “based on their involvement in the promotion, planning,
organization, financing, support or commission of actions carried out in
the national territory or in other countries, in connection with acts of
terrorism.”
The government said it also had arrested Duniel Hernández Santos, adding
that he was “sent from the United States to guarantee the reception of
the armed infiltration, who at this time has confessed to his actions.”
The Associated Press was not immediately able to independently verify
that information.
Cuba’s government said it obtained the details about the passengers
aboard the boat from the suspects detained following the shootout.
It identified seven of the 10 passengers, including Conrado Galindo
Sariol, José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló, Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara
and Roberto Azcorra Consuegra. Cuba's government said that one of the
four killed was Michel Ortega Casanova. Three others have not yet been
identified.
“The investigation process continues until the facts are fully
clarified,” the ministry said in a statement.
Misael Ortega Casanova, brother of Michel Ortega Casanova, told The
Associated Press late Wednesday that he was mourning his brother’s death
but lamented that he fell into what he called an “obsessive and
diabolical” quest for Cuba’s freedom.
“Only us Cubans who have lived over there understand,” Misael Ortega
Casanova said, referring to the “great suffering” that he and other
Cubans on the island have faced.
He noted that his brother, who was a truck driver and an American
citizen who lived for more than 20 years in the U.S., leaves behind his
wife, his mother, two sisters — one of whom lives in Cuba — and a
daughter who is pregnant.
“No one knew,” Misael said of his brother’s plans. “My mother is
devastated.”
He added: “They became so obsessed that they didn’t think about the
consequences nor their own lives.”
Misael said that he did not recognize any of the names that the Cuban
government released.
He said that while he doesn’t believe in heroes — “because that is
ignorance” — he hopes that his brother’s death might be a worthwhile
sacrifice: “maybe it will justify that some day Cuba will be free.”
A ‘highly unusual’ shootout
U.S. President Donald Trump’s top diplomat refused to speculate on what
happened, saying that it could be a “wide range of things,” and that the
U.S. will not solely rely on what the Cuban authorities have provided
thus far.
“Suffice it to say, it is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea
like that. It’s not something that happens every day. It’s something,
frankly, that hasn’t happened with Cuba in a very long time,” Rubio
said.
He said both the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast
Guard are investigating the incident and stressed that he wants to
verify the facts.
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This is a general view of El Malecon in Havana, Cuba, seen Nov.
1971. (AP Photo/Beverley Reed, File)
“The majority of the facts being publicly reported are those by the
information provided by the Cubans. We will verify that
independently as we gather more information, and we’ll be prepared
to respond accordingly," Rubio said. "We’re going to have our own
information on this. We’re going to figure out exactly what
happened.”
He 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 identified by the Cuban government, Conrado Galindo
Sariol, was interviewed in June 2025 by Martí Noticias, a U.S.-based
news site that has long called for a change of government in Cuba.
Galindo, whom the host called “a legend” and a former political
prisoner, was quoted as saying that he wants to support the
struggles that Cubans face, especially in the eastern part of the
island “to achieve the freedom that is needed.”
He said that the protests in Cuba at that time were “not a spark
that’s going to be extinguished.”
“The regime’s leaders are crisscrossing Cuba, trying to mitigate
what’s coming very soon because ... they know they’re out of power,
that they can’t do anything about it, and they’re looking for ways
to prevent the protests from growing in other parts of the country,”
Galindo was quoted as saying.
Fear over increased tensions
Rubio said he found out about the shooting before the Cuban
government posted on social media, noting that the U.S. has
“constant contact” with the country “at the Coast Guard level.”
Earlier, Cuba’s Interior Ministry issued a statement that provided
few details about the shooting, but noted that the boat was roughly
1.6 kilometers (1 mile) northeast of Cayo Falcones, off Cuba’s north
coast.
The government provided the boat’s registration number, but The
Associated Press was unable to readily verify details of the boat
because boat registrations are not public in the state of Florida.
It wasn’t immediately known what the boat and its occupants were
doing in Cuban waters. In the statement, the ministry said Cuba’s
government was “safeguarding its sovereignty and ensuring stability
in the region.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said
it would pursue answers “through every legal and diplomatic channel
available,” adding that “facts remain unclear and conflicting.”
U.S. Vice President JD Vance said late Wednesday afternoon that
Rubio had briefed him on the incident. He added that the White House
was monitoring the situation.
“Hopefully it’s not as bad as we fear it could be,” Vance said.
The shooting threatens to increase tensions between the U.S. and
Cuba. Following the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro,
Trump and top administration officials have taken an increasingly
aggressive stance toward Cuba, which had been largely kept
economically afloat by Venezuela’s oil.
The energy crisis Cuba has been grappling with in recent years
entered new extremes last month when Trump signed an executive order
that would impose a tariff on any country that sells or provides oil
to Cuba. The move put pressure on Mexico, which Cuba became largely
dependent on for petroleum after Trump halted oil shipments from
Venezuela.
Meanwhile, James Uthmeier, Florida’s attorney general, said he has
ordered prosecutors to work with federal, state and law enforcement
partners to start an investigation.
“The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything
in our power to hold these communists accountable,” he wrote on X.
___
Lee reported from Basseterre, St. Kitts and Coto from San José,
Costa Rica. Associated Press reporters Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska,
and Michael Biesecker, Aamer Madhani and Konstantin Toropin in
Washington contributed to this report.
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