HAVANA, Cuba, CMC – Cuban officials on Wednesday announced that four men on a US-registered speedboat were shot and killed after being intercepted in Cuban waters.
In a statement, Cuba’s Interior Ministry said the speedboat’s passengers opened fire on a coast guard vessel that approached them.
Six additional passengers were wounded in the incident, which took place near an island on Cuba’s northern coast.
The identities of those on board the vessel, or what it was doing in the area, are unclear, with the Cuban government saying an investigation has been launched to “clarify” the event.
In a statement posted on social media via the Cuban Embassy in the US, the Interior Ministry said the Florida-registered vessel was detected near Cayo Falcones, in the country’s central Villa Clara province, on Wednesday morning.
When a Cuban boat carrying five members of the ministry’s border guard approached the vessel for identification, “the crew of the violating speedboat opened fire” and wounded the Cuban commander, the statement said.
“As a consequence of the confrontation, as of the time of this report, four aggressors on the foreign vessel were killed and six injured,” the statement added.
Those injured were evacuated and given medical assistance.
The incident comes amid increased tensions between the US and Cuba, which is facing a deepening fuel crisis that has been worsened by the US blocking oil shipments from Venezuela, a long-standing ally in the region, to the island.
It also comes as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in St Kitts and Nevis to meet with Caribbean leaders.
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