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At least one U.S. citizen was killed in an incident in Cuban waters Wednesday and another was injured, two U.S. officials told NBC News.
Cuban officials had said its military killed four men and captured six others who were injured after they entered Cuban waters aboard a Florida-registered boat near the island nation’s northeastern coast. The Cuban government said they were armed and initiated the firefight.
Cuba vowed to defend itself against “terrorist and mercenary aggression” as more information emerged about the U.S.-based Cuban men, whom the government accused of “foiled armed infiltration.”
Other passengers on the boat may be U.S. legal permanent residents, the U.S. officials said, but that has not been confirmed. A third person on the boat was in the U.S. on a K-1 visa, which allows foreigners to enter the U.S. to marry U.S. citizens.
Axios first reported the new details of the men’s legal status.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Thursday that “Cuba will defend itself with determination and firmness against any terrorist and mercenary aggression that seeks to affect its sovereignty and national stability.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday the U.S. will carry out an independent investigation before it responds, adding that it is going to independently verify the information shared by the Cuban government “and reach our own conclusions.”
As part of that effort, Rubio requested official access to the injured men captured by Cuba, the U.S. officials told NBC News. Some of those on the boat had criminal records, the officials added.
Family members, friends and associates who spoke with NBC News and Telemundo, NBC’s Spanish-language network, said the men were known to be opposed to the Cuban government.
A congressional aide told NBC News that there is no indication of any U.S. government link to any of the people on board. Two sources close to one of the detained men said at least some of the men on the boat were affiliated with a paramilitary group that is opposed to Cuba’s government.
Members of the Cuban government have been in touch with the U.S. Coast Guard and the State Department as they further investigate the incident, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuba’s deputy foreign affairs minister, said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
“An investigation is underway to clarify the facts with the utmost rigor,” de Cossío said. “The Cuban government is willing to exchange information with the United States on this matter.”
The Cuban government identified the four men who were killed as Michel Ortega Casanova, Hector Duani Cruz Correa, Pavel Alling Peña and Ledián Padrón Guevara.
In an interview with Telemundo’s Tampa, Florida, station, Ortega Casanova’s brother spoke about his sibling’s actions in the context of their opposition to the Cuban government.
“One way or another this battle has to end,” Misael Ortega Casanova, Michel’s brother, told Telemundo 49.
“Today it was my brother’s turn, and those who fell alongside him. I don’t justify the method or the action,” he said in Spanish in an interview in Casa Cuba de Tampa, an organization for Cuban exiles. “For those who, in one way or another, have had to give their lives, both at home and abroad, for this freedom that we all long for and that has cost us the loss of family and the suffering of separation.”
Ibrahim Bosch, president of Partido Republicano de Cuba, an organization that opposes the Cuban regime, said Michel was a member of their group. But in a statement on social media Thursday morning, he said “the organization’s leadership was completely unaware of his intentions, plans, or participation in said event.”
Cruz Correa was named as a suspect in the theft of the Florida-registered boat the men are believed to have used.
According to an incident report from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in Florida obtained by NBC News, the boat was reported stolen Wednesday, and its owner said he believed Cruz Correa had stolen it.
The Cuban government also identified six of the men it says were in the boat and are now detained in Cuba.
The Cuban government previously designated two of them, Amijail Sánchez González and Leordan Cruz Gómez, as people wanted for “their involvement in the promotion, planning, organization, financing, support or commission of actions carried out in the national territory or in other countries, in connection with acts of terrorism,” according to a Cuban state media report, citing a statement from the Interior Ministry.
NBC News was not immediately able to independently verify that information.
A Cuban man in Miami said his name also appears on the list from the Cuban government as one of the men who was captured.
“They say they have me detained, and I’m here in the United States,” Roberto Azcorra Consuegra told Telemundo’s Miami station.
Azcorra Consuegra said in Spanish that he knows those who were involved in the incident because they all belong to different organizations opposed to the Cuban government.
“We are all young people who want freedom for our country,” he said, adding that he did not have any plans to go to Cuba.
Asked why Cuba’s government would include his name on the list, Azcorra Consuegra said: “They know me. They know me well. They know everything.”
In a statement Thursday evening, Cuba’s Foreign Affairs Ministry acknowledged the “error in identification,” adding that Azcorra Consuegra was not part of the group involved in Wednesday’s incident, “although he is a person known for his history linked to violent actions and intentions against Cuba.”
The wife and daughter of Conrado Galindo Sariol, one of the six men who were captured, told Telemundo’s Miami station they were surprised to hear he was involved in the incident.
“We knew nothing; it caught us and everyone else off-guard,” María de Jesús Galindo, Galindo Sariol’s daughter, said in Spanish.
She said her father was tortured for his activism in Cuba and imprisoned for seven years. She now worries that he will be tortured again, or even killed, now that he is in government custody.
Galindo Sariol’s wife, Ana Seguí, said her husband “is not a terrorist, nor has he ever had a weapon.”
“He was against the Cuban government, that’s true. He protested on all social media platforms, that’s true. But he’s not a terrorist,” she said. “He’s a hero to me because all he dreams of is the freedom of Cuba.”
Miami-based activist Jorge Luis García Pérez, known as Antúnez, who was jailed for 17 years, told NBC News that he shared a prison with Galindo Sariol in the province of Camagüey. They participated in a hunger strike in 2005.
According to García Pérez, Galindo Sariol was jailed because of his activism and opposition to the government. He recalled Galindo Sariol as the one who received him in prison, helped him find a place to sleep and introduced him to the other political prisoners.
“One of the characteristics I admire most of Conrado is his focus. He is also a very decent man. I never heard him say a bad word. Very well-mannered,” García Pérez told NBC News. The men kept in touch occasionally after they were released.
Tensions between the U.S. and Cuba have been rising. Many Cuban Americans in Miami have been hopeful that the 67-year-old dictatorship will soon come to an end.
Since the U.S. captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration has turned its focus to Cuba. President Donald Trump has said “Cuba will be failing pretty soon,” and he has also said the U.S. is holding talks with Cuban leaders. At the same time, the administration has turned up the pressure by blocking oil shipments to the island.
The decrease in fuel, which was already scarce, has worsened a humanitarian crisis that has been unfolding for the past few years, with shortages of basic necessities and fewer essential services like regular trash collection.
Nicole Acevedo is a news reporter for NBC News.
Carmen Sesin is a reporter for NBC News based in Miami, Florida.
Gabe Gutierrez is a senior White House correspondent for NBC News.
Abigail Williams is a producer and reporter for NBC News covering the State Department.
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