In the early hours of Wednesday, a speedboat carrying 10 Cuban exiles approached Cuba after apparently departing from Florida. A Cuban coastguard patrol intercepted the vessel, and an exchange of fire left four people on the speedboat dead and six others wounded.
Cuban authorities said the exiles were attempting an “infiltration with terrorist aims,” and reported that the men wore camouflage and carried assault rifles, explosives and ballistic vests.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would carry out an independent investigation. He emphasized the incident was not an official US operation and involved no government personnel. Rubio called it “highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that,” and said the US was “prepared to respond accordingly” once the facts were established.
Marco Rubio’s role
The confrontation occurs amid heightened tensions between the United States and Cuba, tensions Rubio has helped stoke. A son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio speaks bluntly about the political future he envisions for Cuba. “I think we would like to see the regime there change,” he told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January, adding that while the US would not necessarily cause that change, it would benefit the United States if Cuba were no longer governed by an autocratic regime.
Rubio is seen as a driving force behind current US policy in Latin America, including pushing for the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was taken into US custody in January. US military action in Venezuela had severe consequences for Cuba by cutting off vital oil imports from Caracas, and Washington has threatened punitive tariffs on any third country supplying oil to the island.
The United States has been actively trying to weaken Cuba’s government. Prolonged power outages are now common across the island, forcing reduced school and work hours and crippling public transport in many places. The United Nations has warned of a “humanitarian collapse” as fuel and electricity shortages make it hard to refrigerate food, store medicines and operate water pumps.
Rubio has announced a limited easing of restrictions to allow oil exports to Cuba’s private sector while warning that licences would be revoked immediately if fuel were diverted to the government or military.
The US-Cuba conflict
The US labels Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to its national security and foreign policy. In late January, President Trump declared a national emergency, accusing Cuba’s government of supporting and providing a base to states and actors hostile to the United States. The declaration alleged Cuba hosts Russia’s largest overseas signals intelligence facility and is increasingly collaborating with China; US intelligence has claimed to identify Chinese spy stations on the island capable of surveilling US military operations.
Washington has also accused Cuba of creating a safe environment for international terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, although no public intelligence has been released to substantiate those claims. Nonetheless, Cuba has been added to the US list of state sponsors of international terrorism. US officials also view the spread of communist ideology by Cuba’s government as a direct threat to regional US interests.
Cuba’s postrevolution struggle
The US-Cuba conflict dates back to the 1959 Cuban revolution, when Fidel Castro overthrew the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista and nationalized US businesses on the island. In 1961, the US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion by armed Cuban exiles failed and pushed Cuba closer to the Soviet Union. Fearing further US intervention, Castro permitted the USSR to station nuclear missiles on the island, triggering the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war.
The US imposed a sweeping economic embargo on Cuba during the missile crisis that remains largely in place today. Diplomatic relations have been frozen for decades, with a brief thaw under Barack Obama followed by tightened sanctions during Donald Trump’s first presidency and continued pressure under Joe Biden.
Since Trump’s return to office and Rubio’s appointment as secretary of state, US pressure on Cuba has increased. Rubio said after the recent maritime shooting that “if the Cuban people are suffering, it is because the regime is standing in the way of help.” He added that the United States would only truly ease its pressure if the Cuban government guaranteed “political and economic freedom” to its people.
This article has been translated from German.
