Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has opened a full investigation into the Cuban government's claim that its forces killed four people and injured six others aboard a U.S.-flagged speedboat off Cuba's north shore.
The confrontation, announced by the Cuban government on Tuesday, allegedly occurred within one nautical mile of Falcon Key's El Pino channel near Villa Clara, a relatively short distance due south of the Florida Keys resort town of Marathon.
Uthmeier told Fox News Digital that his office is moving quickly.
"I've directed the Office of Statewide Prosecution to work with our federal, state, and law enforcement partners to begin an investigation."
He did not mince words about Havana's credibility.
"The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable."
The identities of the dead and injured have not been released. What we know comes almost entirely from the Cuban regime itself, which means almost nothing we know can be taken at face value.
Havana's version of events
According to the Cuban government, its forces detected a "violating speedboat" on Tuesday morning operating near Villa Clara. Five border guardsmen approached the vessel, which the regime described as a "foreign vessel" with a Florida license number. A confrontation followed.
The Cuban government's statement framed the outcome in its characteristic language:
"As a consequence of the confrontation, as of the time of this report, four aggressors on the foreign vessel were killed and six were injured. The injured individuals were evacuated and received medical assistance."
Note the word "aggressors." The regime labeled the people on a U.S.-flagged boat as hostile combatants before any independent investigation had begun, before any evidence had been presented, and before the United States had had any opportunity to determine what actually happened. That is not a fact. It is propaganda doing the work of justification.
Havana also offered a familiar refrain about sovereignty:
"[N]ational defense is a fundamental pillar of the Cuban State in safeguarding its sovereignty and ensuring stability in the region."
A communist dictatorship that has crushed every form of domestic dissent for over six decades now claims it was protecting "stability." The regime that jails poets and starves its own population would like the world to believe it acted in self-defense against a speedboat.
Florida's congressional delegation responds
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., was among the first to sound the alarm. He said the Cuban Interior Ministry reported confronting a speedboat with a Florida license number and called for the incident to receive the full federal attention it deserves. Gimenez told Fox News Digital that the Castro and Díaz-Canel regimes "must be relegated to the dustbin of history for their countless crimes against humanity." He said he has asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio for more details.
Rubio was already in the Caribbean region on Tuesday, visiting with officials in Basseterre, St. Kitts. The press pool traveling with Rubio has inquired about the situation, but no statement from the Secretary appeared in the available reporting.
Rep. Byron Donalds, the Naples Republican seeking to succeed Gov. Ron DeSantis, called for accountability without hesitation:
"There should be a full investigation into this troubling matter – The bottom line is that the Communist Cuban regime must go."
Donalds separately noted that the regime has "destroyed the liberty of the Cuban people for two generations, going on a third." He added simply: "They needed to go long ago."
Sen. Rick Scott demanded a "full investigation into this deeply concerning situation and to determine what happened," adding that "the Communist Cuban regime must be held accountable."
Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., said she is "following very closely the reports that Cuban regime forces opened fire on a speedboat registered in Florida," but noted the situation remains developing.
A telling silence from federal agencies
When Fox News Digital reached the Department of Homeland Security for comment, a DHS official directed the outlet to the State Department. No State Department response appeared. Fox News Digital also reached out to the DeSantis administration.
The bureaucratic pass-the-phone routine is familiar. Four people are dead, a U.S.-flagged vessel was involved, the incident occurred a short boat ride from American soil, and the federal government's initial posture was to redirect press calls.
Florida, at least, did not wait for Washington. Uthmeier's decision to activate the Office of Statewide Prosecution signals that the state intends to pursue its own answers.
The broader context Havana doesn't want discussed
Cuba is a failing state in slow collapse. Its economy is in ruins. Its power grid barely functions. Its people flee on rafts, boats, and anything that floats. The regime survives on repression and the goodwill of foreign allies who find it useful.
Against that backdrop, the Treasury Department signaled Wednesday that it would allow oil companies to apply for licenses to resell Venezuelan oil to Cuba, according to Reuters. The timing is striking. The same week Havana announces it killed people aboard an American-flagged vessel, the bureaucratic machinery grinds forward on a process that could ease pressure on the regime.
These two facts should not exist in the same week without serious scrutiny.
What comes next
The critical question remains unanswered: Who were the people on that boat? Until American investigators, not Cuban propagandists, establish the facts, Havana's narrative deserves exactly the credibility Uthmeier assigned it. None.
Four people are dead. Six are injured. A communist regime 90 miles from American shores announced it all with the bureaucratic calm of a traffic report. Florida's leaders responded within hours. The rest of Washington should match that urgency, or explain why it can't.
