Cuba's communist government claims that it killed four and wounded six others on a Florida-registered speed boat that entered its territorial waters earlier this week. The 10 passengers were reportedly terrorists who opened fire on soldiers.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. will draw its own conclusions.
"We're not going to base our conclusions on what they've told us," he told reporters Wednesday. "I'm very, very confident that we will know the full story of what happened here, and we will know it soon. Then we will respond appropriately."
Following the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump and top administration officials have taken an increasingly aggressive stance toward Cuba, which had been largely kept economically afloat by Venezuela's oil. This shooting threatens to increase tensions.
"I don't trust the Cuban government in anything," Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Florida) recently told the Fox News Channel. "I don't trust anything that they say. Their story has already changed."
Cuba's initial version of the incident was that a Florida‑registered boat entered Cuban waters, fired on Cuban border guards, and Cuban forces responded. The narrative later shifted, with the government saying the passengers were armed "Cuban nationals" living in the U.S. attempting a deliberate, hostile infiltration and that Cuba seized weapons and suspects with alleged ties to terrorism.
Gimenez, who was born in Havana and fled to the U.S. with his family after the communists confiscated their substantial land holdings, insists, "We need to find out exactly what happened."
"This regime is causing the humanitarian crisis in Cuba … and I'm very happy with the pressure that's being applied by the Trump administration and Secretary of State Marco Rubio," he told Fox News. "We've seen this movie before from these folks, and it's time for them to go."
He is hopeful about a better future for the people of Cuba.
"This is the closest we've been to seeing a free Cuba, and for me, it can't happen soon enough," Gimenz said.
