“I am not going to speculate or give an opinion; I want to know what happened. We are going to find out exactly what happened and we will respond accordingly,” he told the press during a summit of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) held in Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Rubio pointed out that all the data known so far comes from the Cuban authorities and affirmed that the Donald Trump Administration wants to verify what happened through “independent information.”
Meanwhile, the White House said it is monitoring Cuba’s attack on the ship from the United States in which at least four crew members died, Vice President JD Vance reported.
During a press appearance, Vance revealed that he was informed of what happened by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, but noted that many details are still unknown.
“Marco told me about it about 15 minutes ago, but we don’t know many details. It is a situation that we are monitoring. Hopefully it is not as bad as we fear it could be,” declared the vice president.
What the regime says
According to the Cuban Ministry of the Interior, the Cuban Border Guard Troop killed four crew members of a speedboat from the United States on Wednesday who, according to the regime, did not obey when they were stopped in territorial waters and supposedly opened fire on the police boat.
The official statement also indicated that Six other people on the speedboat were injured in the alleged exchange, as well as “the commander of the Cuban boat”, in which a total of five people were patrolling.
The incident occurred in the morning hours of this Wednesday, when Cuban authorities detected “an offending speedboat within Cuban territorial waters with the license plate of Florida, United States, with folio FL7726SH.”
Rubio denies talks with Cuba
The head of US diplomacy denied having held conversations with the Cuban regime on this matter and ruled out the participation of US Government personnel in the shooting.
He stated that The US embassy in Havana has requested access to the survivors of the boatpresumably American citizens, to find out their situation.
“We will independently verify and, as we gather more information, we will be prepared to respond accordingly,” said the Secretary of State.
“We are not going to base our conclusions on what they (Cuba) have told us, and I am very, very confident that we will know the full story of what happened here,” Rubio told reporters in the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, where he traveled for a summit with Caribbean leaders.
Florida opens investigation
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the opening of an investigation after the incident in which Cuban authorities intercepted a boat registered in that southern US state, and stated that those responsible “will be held accountable.”
“I have ordered the State Prosecutor’s Office to work with our federal, state and law enforcement partners to begin an investigation. The Cuban Government cannot be trusted and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable,” Uthmeier said on his social networks.
The announcement came hours after it became known that the Cuban Border Guard Troop fired on a speedboat coming from Florida.
Florida authorities demand investigation
Cuban-American Congressman Carlos Giménez, from Florida, demanded “an immediate investigation of this massacre,” in which the commander of the Cuban boat was also injured, although the Minint has not identified the members of the boat or their possible motivations.
“United States authorities must determine whether any of the victims are US citizens or legal residents and establish exactly what happened. The regime in Cuba must be relegated to the dustbin of history for its countless crimes against the community,” Giménez demanded in a statement.
Fellow congressman and former Florida governor Rick Scott joined calls for a “thorough” investigation into what he considered a “worrying situation.”
“The Cuban communist regime must be held accountable,” he expressed on the X social network.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a statement that she was closely following the incident, and called for “a full and immediate evaluation” so that those responsible “are held accountable.”
The event occurs amid growing pressure from Washington on Havana after the US intervention in Venezuela that led to the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3, after which the United States cut off the supply of Venezuelan crude oil to the island.
Legislator María Elvira Salazar, also a Cuban-American from Florida, commented that she is still “waiting for official information from US authorities.”
