4 Dead After US-Registered Speedboat Enters Cuba

Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio speaks to Carole Walker for Times Radio. 

Transcript

Carole Walker 0:00

Uh Cuba's Interior Ministry has said this evening that four men on a US registered speedboat were shot and killed after being intercepted in Cuban waters. In a statement, the ministry said the speedboat's passengers opened fire on a Coast Guard vessel that approached them. Well, in just the last few minutes, we've had reaction from the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Marco Rubio 0:34

We haven't spoken theoretically about this now. I'm not going to comment about any conversations with anyone that's completely to say what it's important to be up there and everyone needs to know. We're going to have money from the people. I'm not even in a speculative to what it could have been. It's a wide range of things. 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.

Carole Walker 1:07

Well, let's talk to Jon Bonfiglio, a journalist in Latin America. Good evening to you, Jon. Hey, Carole. We didn't learn a huge amount there from Marco Rubio. What do you know about this incident?

Jon Bonfiglio 1:21

I mean, much the same. What the Cuban authorities have released as information. We know that this took place this morning, but we're only finding out about it now because of this information that was released by uh by the Cuban government, in which we know that this um this vessel, this speedboat, um entered Cuban waters this morning carrying uh it was uh Florida plated, so it came across from the US. It's I guess important to note contextually that uh on a fast, fully equipped speedboat, it would take only between an hour and a half and two hours uh to cross over between Miami and uh and Cuba, and that it was greeted by the Cuban, it was met by the Cuban Coast Guard who um who demanded that the vessel stop, and then individuals on the vessel opened fire on the Cuban Coast Coast Guard vessel that returned uh fire, killing four of the ten individuals. Six of the others uh were injured, and I understand are currently receiving medical attention on the island.

Carole Walker 2:14

I mean it does seem um uh uh an extraordinary incident, unclear who these armed personnel apparently on this on this speedboat were.

Jon Bonfiglio 2:25

Yeah, there is no sense and no information released as to who who they might be. Um I would also contextualize that actually although uh Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying that this kind of shootout is hugely unusual. I mean, he's right in saying that, the presence of foreign speedboats both off the coast of Cuba and abandoned on Cuba's north shore is no great surprise. Generally speaking, it is to do with um uh vessels that emanate in Florida that move to Cuba generally, historically, has been to remove people, to assist people in moving away from the island and up to Florida. So the very presence is no surprise. The the firefight undoubtedly is.

Carole Walker 3:06

Uh yeah, I mean, uh I was just gonna say how unusual it is to have this kind of activity there. I mean, we hear a lot, don't we, from the US authorities um uh about drug running boats. We saw um uh the a series of attacks uh uh on uh boats off the coast of Venezuela before the operation to seize Nicolas Maduro. Um is there any suggestion that drug running could have been some part of this?

Jon Bonfiglio 3:34

There is no suggestion um at this point that drug running was was a a part of this. Um it is important contextually, geographically, I guess, to realize that the Caribbean Sea is a really cluttered space in which uh rapid movement between territories is uh is possible. That that's for sure. And and of course, as you uh I think intimate, which is absolutely right, in in any moment this would be a news story. But given the incredibly high tension that is being experienced between Cuba and the United States at this moment in time, uh the fear is that of course something like this could could spark off something greater.

Carole Walker 4:12

Yeah, and just explain what's happening there, because we've been hearing, haven't we, about the deterioring deteriorating situation in Cuba because of the fuel blockade imposed by the United States.

Jon Bonfiglio 4:28

Yes, which is a full blockade, not a full blockade as regards vessels, sort of, I guess we imagine a blockade as being uh a sort of um a ring around a particular space, but a blockade um where economic leverage is being used by the United States um around the object of tariffs in order to encourage um other countries not to trade with Cuba and certainly not to give them any um any oil. I think one of the things I would draw attention to in the last couple of days is that the embargo has actually been eased uh slightly by the United States. They are now actually allowing a small amount of oil to be sold, Venezuelan oil specifically, to be sold by uh US companies to um to Cuba. And I would also argue that actually Secretary of State Marco Rubio's tone in response to this event is actually in stark contrast. So a number of other Cuban representatives in Florida itself describe the event as a massacre. So it sort of would suggest that there is a um, at least for the moment, a thawing of perspective from the Trump administration towards Cuba.

Carole Walker 5:26

And uh the tensions there are also because uh I mean, so many people, uh and this has been going on for quite some time, trying to flee Cuba to get to the United States.

Jon Bonfiglio 5:38

Yeah, I mean that's that's been ongoing you know since the revolution in 1959. But of course, the the sort of perfect storm of events in the last few years, which includes uh COVID, which includes an economic meltdown um uh on the island, the uh the embargo's had its effect uh too, has meant that uh significant numbers of Cubans have moved up to the uh to the United States. Those bridges that allow Cubans to move into Latin America and then up to the USA have now largely been uh been blocked off. So there's there's little movement taking place there now. Uh those Cubans that remain on the island largely are now trapped.

Carole Walker 6:12

Jon Bonfiglio, a journalist in Latin America. Really good to speak to you. Thank you so much for joining us tonight.