The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, stated this Wednesday that Washington will not accept the version offered by the Cuban government regarding the operation in which four people were killed on board a boat registered in Florida, intercepted by forces from the island.
During statements to the press on the sidelines of a Caribbean Community (Caricom) summit in Saint Kitts and Nevis, Rubio emphasized that his government will seek to clarify the facts by its own means before issuing conclusions.
"We are going to find out exactly what happened and we will respond accordingly," he said. The head of U.S. diplomacy insisted that all the information available so far comes from the Cuban authorities and that the United States wants to have independent data.
According to the Ministry of the Interior of Cuba, the Border Guard Troop detected in the morning hours a fast boat "offending" within Cuban territorial waters, identified with registration from the state of Florida.
The authorities maintain that the vessel did not obey the order to stop and that its occupants "opened fire on the patrol", which led to an armed exchange. The official report records four crew members dead, six wounded, and one Cuban officer injured.
Rubio ruled out that U.S. government personnel had been involved in the incident and confirmed that the United States Embassy in Havana requested access to the survivors, allegedly U.S. citizens, in order to learn about their situation and gather direct testimony. He also denied having held conversations with the Cuban government about what happened.
