A commando of Cuban exiles who intended to infiltrate Cuba on a speedboat was armed with nearly 13,000 rounds of ammunition, 13 rifles and 11 pistols, Cuban \u200bofficials said on Friday, providing new details about Wednesday’s deadly exchange of gunfire at sea. The government in Havana \u200bhas said 10 Cuban nationals coming from the United States \u2060entered Cuban waters and opened fire on a border guard vessel, leading Cuban forces to return fire killing four and wounding six others, who were taken into custody. In \u200ban attempt to dispel doubts about \u200cits account to date, senior Cuban Interior Ministry officers displayed the captured armaments from the studio on a special television program, including bins full of at least some of the 12,846 recovered rounds. They also showed pictures of the vessels, each \u200bpeppered with bullet holes from the firefight they said took place at a range of 20 meters (66 feet). The confrontation took place at a fraught moment in U.S.-Cuban relations, with U.S. President Donald
Trump pressuring the island by imposing a virtual oil blockade after capturing and ousting Venezuelan President \u200cNicolas Maduro, a crucial Cuban ally, \u200con January 3. Cuba has identified \u200bthe assailants as Cuban exiles, some of whom had been previously placed on a list of accused terrorists, who came from the United States with the intent to sow chaos and attack military units on the Communist-ruled island. “The intent of this group is to infiltrate, to promote public disorder. To incite the people to unite. To carry out something violent. Attack military \u200bunits in order to incite social unrest and to unite the people in order to steal the revolution. That has been duly proven,” said Colonel Victor Alvarez of the Interior Ministry. CUBA SAYS RESPONSE ‘PROPORTIONAL’ U.S. politicians have expressed skepticism over Cuba’s version of events. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said his government \u200bwould independently investigate, adding that it was not a U.S. operat
ion and that no U.S. government personnel were involved. Cuban officers said the infiltrators set out from Marathon in the Florida Keys on two vessels but ditched one at some point due to technical difficulties. They united on one speedboat, which a U.S. official said was reported stolen in Florida. Cuba said it recovered a drone, radios, knives, a portable power plant, bolt cutters and other materiel. \u200cThey also found emblems of the November 30th Movement and People’s Self-Defense, anti-communist groups that oppose the Cuban government. Cuba says a patrol of five border guard members on a 9-meter boat spotted the incoming vessel shortly after 7 a.m., with some members of the incoming crew in the \u2060water, about one nautical mile off a \u200bcay on the Caribbean island’s northern coast, about 100 miles (160 km) from Marathon. The infiltrators opened fire at a distance of 185 meters, striking the captain of the Cuban vessel in the abdomen, Cuba said. Bleeding heavily, the wounded captain remained at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A commando of Cuban exiles who intended to infiltrate Cuba on a speedboat was armed with nearly 13,000 rounds of ammunition, 13 rifles and 11 pistols, Cuban \u200bofficials said on Friday, providing new details about Wednesday’s deadly exchange of gunfire at sea. The government in Havana \u200bhas said 10 Cuban nationals coming from the United […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n