A man the Cuban Communist Party falsely identified as having been detained in a dramatic speedboat shootout this week told local media outlets in Florida that he is “worried” for his safety and suspected that the men onboard the ship, accused of plotting actions against the regime, were “infiltrated” by a Cuban spy operation.
The Cuban Ministry of the Interior announced on Wednesday that it had allegedly intercepted a speedboat that it claimed was registered in Florida and carried armed individuals on board. The Castro regime accused the men aboard of opening fire on the Cuban Coast Guard when the latter approached their boat and demanded identification. Regime authorities reported that ten men were onboard and that it arrested six and killed four.
The administration of President Donald Trump has refused to confirm or deny any of the Cuban regime’s claims. The only information provided by Secretary of State Marco Rubio following Havana’s declarations on Wednesday was a confirmation that the events transpired did not involve any American government operation, vessel, or known employees. Rubio expressed deep skepticism in response to the Communist Party’s claims that it had thwarted a “terrorist” operation.
The Cuban regime identified Roberto Azcorra Consuegra as one of the six men detained on the boat on Sunday. In reality, Azcorra was in his home in Florida when the news broke and was shocked to be included on the list. He spent much of Thursday in front of Versailles, the iconic Miami restaurant known as the political heart of the Cuban exile community, speaking to journalists and clarifying his position.
In a Spanish-language interview with Mario Pentón of Martí Noticias, Azcorra explained that he has a long history of political activism against communism, including when he lived in Cuba. He said that he left Cuba in 2016, fleeing by sea to the Bahamas where he was temporarily imprisoned before arriving in the United States.
“I have continued the struggle in the United States against the dictatorship,” Azcorra asserted, but insisted he was not aware of any plan to invade Cuba on a speedboat. Asked how the Cuban government had his name, he insisted he had no idea how he ended up on that list.
“I don’t how to explain [it], maybe my history, all my activity. I don’t know how to say because it is something new. I’m still finding out now,” he stated. Azcorra confirmed that he knew the others named as being part of the alleged speedboat operation.
“I know them, I have photos with them and everything on Facebook,” he shared.
Asked for his take on what may have happened with the boat in question, he suggested that the Castro regime’s sophisticated espionage operations may have infiltrated the Cuban exile community and agents may have schemed to hatch an intentionally failed plot to reach the island.
“From what I’m thinking, Cuba doesn’t have oil and Cuba is frozen from point to point, the speedboats don’t come in or go out,” he observed, noting that Cuba lost its main source of fuel when U.S. authorities arrested Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in January. “What a coincidence that that day, at that place, they were waiting for them there. I think that there was an infiltrator,” he continued. “I don’t know how to tell you because those are bigger things and I don’t want to give a declaration when I don’t know, but I do have a lot of suspicions that there was an infiltration.”
He expressed apprehension for what could happen to him now that he was named falsely as being among the passengers on the ill-fated boat.
Speaking outside of Versailles to WSVN 7 Miami, Azcorra also urged pro-freedom people not to accept the framing of the Communist Party declaring the men involved in the operation “terrorists.”
“My message is: don’t classify these men as terrorists or something negative. Those guys risked their lives to free Cuba, to support the people,” he asserted. “Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out and now all this is happening. But don’t categorize them as terrorists. No one here is a terrorist. We’re all Cubans and we all want freedom for Cuba. Everyone fights in their own way.”
Cuban Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Fernández de Cossío clarified on Thursday that Azcorra, indeed, was not involved in the incident, but nonetheless disparaged him as having an alleged “history linked to violent actions and intentions against Cuba.” Fernández de Cossío did not elaborate on the spurious claim.
The Cuban regime – one of the world’s top state sponsors of terrorism, with ties to groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas – regularly identifies peaceful anti-communist journalists, activists, and politicians as “terrorists,” particularly if they are ethnically Cuban. The Cuban government does not recognize the American citizenship of Cuban-Americans born on United States soil, even if they have never been to the island, imposing itself as the only entity it claims has rightful authority over all ethnic Cubans around the world.
In his remarks on Thursday, Fernández de Cossío repeatedly claimed that the boat in question was full of “terrorists” and insisted — without evidence — that Cuban-Americans were involved in a regular pattern of violence.
“This is not an isolated act,” he claimed. “Cuba has been the victim of aggressions and countless terrorist acts for over 60 years, the majority of them organized, financed, and executed from United States territory.”
In reality, state sponsor of terrorism Cuba has been a longstanding threat to the United States. The day before the announcement of the alleged speedboat incident, Cuban-Americans marked the 30th anniversary of the Brothers to the Rescue murders, in which the Cuban government killed four American citizens flying rescue operations looking for wayward Cuban rafters in international waters. Havana has never faced any consequences for the massacre.
The Cuban government identified the men aboard the speedboat who survived the Cuban assault as Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara, Conrado Galindo Serrior, José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló, Leordán Cruz Gómez, Amijail Sánchez González, and Roberto Álvarez Ávila. Cuban authorities killed another four passengers, identified as Pavel Alling Peña, Michael Ortega Casanova, Ledián Padrón Guevara and Héctor Duani Cruz Correa.
Friends and loved ones honored Ortega Casanova, the first man the Cuban government named as dead, as a “patriot” dedicated to the cause of a free Cuba. He was a member of the Cuban Republican Party and a known activist for human rights.
“They did not go to Cuba to commit a terrorist act, they went to do what few have had the courage to do,” Wilfredo Beyra, who reportedly took leadership of the local chapter of the Cuban Republican Party in Tampa, wrote on social media. “They went to try to make an extreme sacrifice to awaken the people for the freedom of Cuba.”
Cuban-American journalists have identified Pavel Alling Peña as an American citizen who worked as a professor, writer, and poet, and was an outspoken opponent of communism.
“We will know quickly many more facts about this incident than we know right now. The majority of the facts being publicly reported are those by the information provided by the Cubans,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday, responding to questions about the incident. “We will verify that independently.”
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