President Trump calls Cuba a ‘failed nation’ as oil embargo negotiations continue
President Donald Trump on February 16 called Cuba a “failed nation”, saying the oil embargo has made it more difficult to operate the country’s flights and airports.
- Cuban officials claim the men were armed and part of a terrorist plot, but the US has not confirmed the accusations.
- Several of the men identified by Cuba have criminal records in the United States.
- A man named by Cuban authorities claims he was in Miami at the time of the incident.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
A rare gunfight in international waters involving a Florida-registered speedboat and 10 Cubans believed to be living in the United States has sparked investigations in Washington and Havana.
Cuban authorities said that when the boat was seized in territorial waters on February 25, the crew was carrying assault rifles, handguns, improvised explosive devices, body armor and other tactical military equipment. Four people died. Six people were arrested. Another man was detained in Cuba on charges of aiding and abetting the men on the boat.
Cuba’s interior ministry has accused everyone involved of participating in a terrorist plot, but authorities in Washington have not corroborated that accusation. Cuba identified one of the four people killed as Michel Ortega Casanova. He said work is continuing to identify the remaining three people.
But what do we know about the 10 men involved in the latest escalation between the Cold War enemies?
Who were the people involved in the Cuban speedboat shooting?
According to Cuban authorities, those detained included:
- Amijail Sanchez González
- Reordan Enrique Cruz Gomez
- Conrado Galindo Saliol
- Jose Manuel Rodriguez Castello
- Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara
- Roberto Azcola Consuegra
- The man arrested on Cuban territory was identified as Daniel Hernandez Santos.
Cuba said the majority of the participants had a history of crime and violence. There appears to be some accuracy to that claim.
USA TODAY reached out to Washington to ask about their situation in the United States. U.S. officials could not be reached for comment.
Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, head of the General Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, an exile group opposed to the Cuban regime, warned against relying too much on the details of the incident released by the Cuban government.
His name is on the same Cuban terrorist list as Sánchez González, and he is suspected of starting an anti-Castro guerrilla group. The group was actually founded six years before he was born.
“They have a history of lying and committing crimes,” Gutierrez-Boronato said. “Why should I believe anything they say? Especially when they’re under so much pressure like now?”
Amijail Sanchez González
Sanchez Gonzalez, 47, was arrested in Miami-Dade County in 2020 and charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest, fleeing the scene of a crime, reckless driving and criminal damage to property, according to public records. He spent more than a year in prison. Two years later, he was back in prison on a charge of tampering with an electronic monitor, a felony. He is also one of two people detained this week that the Cuban Ministry of Justice previously added to its “International Most Wanted” list, which also includes members of Miami’s exile community dating back to 1999, according to a Justice Department official gazette sent to USA TODAY by Cuban officials.
Sanchez Gonzalez lives in a suburb of Miami-Dade County, just south of Miami.
In the Official Gazette of the Ministry of Justice, Sánchez González was accused of inciting an act of sabotage against the People’s Court of Central Havana in 2022. And in 2023, Cuban authorities said he had smuggled firearms, ammunition and other materials across the northern coast of Cuba’s Matanzas province “with the purpose of committing acts of terrorism against military units.” Allegedly funded by US-based supporters
Separately, in a 2023 news bulletin in which Cuban officials identified wanted terrorist suspects, Sánchez González was also among the wanted. Translated reports from government media at the time showed photos of Sánchez González that matched social media photos and videos found by USA TODAY promoting the liberation of Cuba.
In one of those video posts, a man believed to be Sánchez González talks about taking over Cuba as president, while accusing President Donald Trump of doing nothing to make the liberation happen. This man uses Spanish expletives to emphasize his frustration and sense of urgency for change.
“We are going to fight for Cuba,” he said multiple times in his posts. Afterwards, he said, “I have the strength to do what I need to do now.” He is grateful to America for accepting him as a refugee and giving him his life back, including the chance to start a family. “But I want to die the way a real person would die.”
Reordan Enrique Cruz Gomez
Cruz Gomez, also 47, was another man added to Cuba’s “International Most Wanted List.”
Authorities opened an investigation against him for “sabotage” in Villa Clara, Cuba, in 2025, and another Cuban national was arrested and charged. Public records show a person with the same name as Cruz-Gomez was last seen living at an address in Tampa, Florida, and his name has been linked to criminal activity, multiple arrests, and possession of hunting and fishing licenses.
It was not immediately clear whether they were the same person.
Neither Sanchez González nor Cruz Gomez could be reached for comment on the allegations. Attempts to contact potential family members and representatives in Cuba and the United States were not immediately successful.
Conrado Galindo Saliol
Posts on an Instagram account that appears to belong to Galindo Sorial alternate between videos of him offering to sell cars at a used car lot in Miami, and photos and interviews with prominent Cuban exiles advocating for Cuba’s freedom.
Galindo Sorial said in a March 2025 interview with the hard-line Cuban asylum program Radio Marti Podcast that his mother was a teacher and his father fought with Castro’s forces in the Sierra Maestra, but later became disillusioned with the regime.
Galindo Sorial had been involved with the Cuban opposition since around 1991, distributing anti-Castro pamphlets and writing underground articles against the regime, before being imprisoned in a prison in Camaguey. He then left for Miami.
Galindo Sorial said in an interview that he dreams of a free Cuba, where all Cubans have equal rights and the ability to defend their homeland.
“Cuba is the jewel of the Americas,” he said. “Before I die, I want to see her free.”
Roberto Azcola Consuegra
Information about other men allegedly involved in operating the speedboat is scattered.
Public records show a man named Roberto Azcola Consuegra, 45, was last seen living at the Miami address. Over a five-year period, that address and name were associated with dozens of reports of criminal activity. The name and address also match the apparent owner of a Miami-based carpet cleaning company.
A man believed to be Azcola Consuegra’s father answered the phone to a USA TODAY reporter, identified himself and then hung up. However, it was not immediately clear whether Azcola Consuegra was in Cuba.
In a Feb. 26 television interview with a local NBC affiliate in Florida, a man who identified himself as Azcola Consuegra said he was surprised to learn his name was on a list issued by Cuba’s Interior Ministry because he was in South Florida at the time, not on the island of Cuba. He also denied knowing about any plans to go to Cuba.
Asked why he believed the Cuban government would put his name on a list and charge him with terrorism, Azcola Consuegra said: “They know me. They know me well, they know everything.”
The United States and Cuba: What’s going on now?
The Cuban government accused the 10 people on board the speedboat seized off the coast of Cuba of planning an “armed infiltration for terrorist purposes.” The United States has said little about the incident, but its top diplomat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said the U.S. government was investigating the “highly unusual” incident.
Rubio said this was not a U.S. government operation and said, “I’m not going to speculate about whose ship it was, what they were doing, why they were there, what actually happened.”
The episode comes at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and Cuba, long-time adversaries. It also comes less than two months after U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, a close ally of Cuba, in an attack that had severe economic and humanitarian consequences for Cuba.
Venezuela has been supplying oil to Cuba for more than 20 years. In response to the U.S. operation, Washington imposed an oil embargo on Cuba. But Cuba’s Caribbean neighbors have moved to ease those restrictions in recent days, after warning that the embargo could destabilize the entire region.
Contributor: Francesca Chambers
Kim Hjelmgaard, Rick Jervis and Jayme Fraser are all reporters on the USA TODAY investigative team.
