Florida boat caught in shootout with Cuban coast guard. Here’s where it happened
All eyes are on Cuba, where several men reportedly from the U.S. were shot and killed, with several others detained, off the island’s coast.
Cuban authorities said there was an exchange of gunfire Wednesday between a group of men on board a boat registered in Florida and the Cuban coast guard. They said the confrontation happened one nautical mile northeast of the El Pino channel in Cayo Falcones, off the northern coast of the Villa Clara province in central Cuba, according to Cuban government officials.
Cayo Falcones is a cay, or small island, off Cuba’s north coast, near Corralillo, a rural town in the Villa Clara province of Cuba. It is part of the chain of small islands that nestle the coast of Cuba and are known as the Sabana-Camagüey Archipelago.
The Cuban government claims the men on the boat were armed and planning a “terrorist infiltration.” The U.S. government said it’s investigating the incident, which Cuba claims ended with four men dead and several others injured.
The names of at least two of the men the Cuban government said are detained appear on the regime’s most recent national terrorism list, which was updated last year and published in the country’s official state-sponsored newspaper. The list, according to the Cuban regime, includes individuals and organizations that “have been subject to criminal investigations and are wanted by Cuban authorities for their involvement in acts of terrorism.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2026 at 6:15 PM.
