Havana — Officials from Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior on Friday for the first time released a list of items they say were aboard a Florida-flagged speedboat that opened fire on Cuban troops off the island’s north coast this week. Cuban forces returned fire and killed four suspects.
Authorities told The Associated Press they determined the 10 Cuban suspects left the U.S. in two boats, but one vessel failed, so its supplies were transferred to the remaining boat and the disabled craft was left adrift. Officials said the detainees provided those accounts and that Cuba immediately contacted the U.S. Coast Guard.
Cuban officials displayed the seized material: about a dozen high-powered firearms including one with a scope; a cooler containing more than 12,800 rounds of ammunition; 11 pistols; heavy-duty boots; helmets fitted with cameras; and camouflage backpacks.
“We were clearly able to assess that we were facing a terrorist action from a boat coming from the United States,” 1st Col. Ivey Daniel Carballo of the Cuban Border Guard Troops told the AP.
Carballo said a 30-foot (nine-meter) border patrol boat detected an intruding speedboat Wednesday morning, closed to roughly 600 feet (185 meters) to investigate and was met with high-caliber gunfire. Three attackers were killed immediately; a fourth was wounded and later died. The speedboat was found about one mile (1.6 kilometers) northeast of Cayo Falcones. The border guard commander was injured.
Victor Eduardo Alvarez Valle, head of Criminal Investigation for State Security at the Interior Ministry, said authorities were surprised by the level of resistance and the quantity of weapons. He said the detainees identified the military equipment, described where and how they obtained it, recounted the training they had received and named those who financed it. Officials reported finding 13 bullet holes on the border guard boat and 21 on the suspect vessel, “meaning that there was combat,” Alvarez said.
Cuban authorities had earlier said one person was captured on land; Alvarez added there is so far no information indicating a support network on the island.
Edward Robert Campbell, chief prosecutor of the Attorney General’s Office directorate, said the six arrested, all of Cuban origin, could face terrorism charges that carry possible sentences from 30 years to life or even the death penalty, though the death penalty has been under moratorium for more than a decade.
The AP was given access to Cuban military officials and shown the seized items at the headquarters of the former Cuban Institute of Radio and Television ahead of a public display.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the operation was not conducted by the U.S. government and that American authorities were collecting their own information.
