“Assault rifles, short weapons, artisanal explosive devices (Molotov cocktails), bulletproof vests, telescopic sights and camouflage uniforms.” This is what the ten crew members of the boat intercepted in Cuban territorial waters by the island’s coast guard were carrying, as reported by the Cuban Ministry of the Interior after the shootout with the boat in which four people were killed.
“They are all Cubans residing in the United States,” explains the Cuban Government: “Most of them with a known history of criminal and violent activity, including Amijail Sánchez González and Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez, who appear on the national list of people and entities who, by virtue of Resolution 1373 of the United Nations Security Council, international law and the Cuban legal system, have been subjected to criminal investigations and are wanted by the 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, based on acts of terrorism.”
The Cuban Government has also reported that it has carried out “the arrest in the national territory of citizen Duniel Hernández Santos, sent from the United States to guarantee the reception of the armed infiltration, who is currently confessing to his actions. The investigation process continues until the facts are fully clarified.”
Rubio: “The US will respond accordingly”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has stated that the US was collecting information to determine whether the victims were US citizens or permanent residents. “We have several agencies that are trying to identify elements of the story that may not have been provided to us yet,” Rubio said from the Basseterre airport in St. Kitts, where he was attending a regional summit with Caribbean leaders.
“Suffice it to say that it is very unusual to see shootings in the open sea like that. It is not something that happens every day. It is something that, frankly, has not happened with Cuba in a long time,” said Rubio, who has stated that both the United States Department of Homeland Security and the US Coast Guard are investigating the incident and stressed that he wants to verify the facts: “The majority of the facts that have been made public are those contained in the information provided by the Cubans. We will verify them independently as we Let’s gather more information, and we will be ready to respond accordingly. We will get our own information about it.
Rubio has stated that this was not a US Government operation and that he was not going to “speculate about whose boat it was, what they were doing, why they were there or what really happened.” Rubio added: “We’re going to find out and when we find out, we’ll say it and do whatever we need to do about it, depending on what it is.”
Rubio has said that he learned about the shooting before the Cuban government published it on social media, and noted that the United States maintains “constant contact” with the country “within the scope of the Coast Guard.”
The Cuban Ministry of the Interior issued an initial statement in which it stated that the vessel was located approximately 1.6 kilometers northeast of Cayo Falcones, off the northern coast of Cuba. In the statement, the Ministry stated that the Government of Cuba was “safeguarding its sovereignty and guaranteeing stability in the region.”
US Vice President JD Vance said on Wednesday afternoon that Rubio had informed him of the incident, adding that the White House was monitoring the situation closely: “Hopefully it’s not as serious as we fear.”
The shooting occurs in the midst of the Trump Administration’s suffocation of Cuba.
Rubio has stated that the Government of Cuba must carry out “drastic reforms that open space for the economic and, ultimately, political freedom of the Cuban people.”
Meanwhile, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has ordered prosecutors to collaborate with their federal, state and law enforcement counterparts to launch an investigation: “The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable.”
Source: www.eldiario.es
