Six more people were injured and taken to hospital, according to a statement from the Interior Ministry shared by the Cuban Embassy in the United States on X .
The boat, registered in Florida, U.S., was reportedly in Cuban waters one nautical mile off the islands of Cayo Falcones when the incident occurred on Wednesday morning, local time.
When a Cuban Coast Guard boat approached to identify the American boat, the people aboard it began shooting at the Cubans, according to the Interior Ministry.
Shoot back
The Cuban commander was then reportedly injured and the Coast Guard fired back, after which "four attackers on the foreign boat were killed."
The nationality of the people is not known.
Cuba's Interior Ministry further writes that, faced with the "current challenges" in the region, the country is determined to "protect its territorial waters."
"Investigations by competent authorities are continuing to fully clarify what happened," the ministry writes.
U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance told reporters that the government was monitoring developments, AFP wrote.
"Hopefully it's not as bad as we fear it might be," he said, adding, "we don't have all the details."
A representative of U.S. authorities told The New York Times that the boat was civilian.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that the state will conduct its own investigation in cooperation with U.S. federal authorities.
“The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable,” he wrote on X.
Increased tensions
It is not entirely unusual for Cuban authorities to clash with American boats in Cuban waters, but it is rarer for it to turn violent, wrote the AP news agency. Most often, the incidents are linked to drug smuggling or human trafficking.
The firefight occurred amid heightened tensions between the United States and the communist-ruled island nation.
Cuba is suffering from an economic and energy crisis that has recently been exacerbated by the U.S. blockade of oil supplies from Venezuela - a blockade that Washington decided to ease on Wednesday.
