Cuba

Cuba's government says the 10 people on a Florida-registered boat that opened fire on its soldiers were "terrorists" trying to infiltrate the island. The country says its forces killed four people.

Cuba says two of the ten Cuban expats captured after a shootout with its coast guard were already on the regime's terrorist list — and in a recent video, one of them urged "cowardly" exiles to die to free the communist island. Meanwhile, it emerged that the boat used by the expats may have been stolen from a home in the Florida Keys.

Cuban soldiers confronted a speedboat carrying 10 people as the vessel approached the island and opened fire on the troops, who fired back. That's according to the Cuban government.

Cuban entrepreneurs like Aldo Alvarez hope Secretary of State Marco Rubio's pitch for economic as well as political rights will move Havana's communists — and Miami's exiles — to take the private sector more seriously amid the island's humanitarian emergency.

Cuba’s government said late Wednesday that the 10 passengers on a boat that opened fire on its soldiers were armed Cubans living in the U.S. who were trying to infiltrate the island and unleash terrorism. U.S. officials said they are reviewing the incident.

Cuban state media said the Florida-registered boat was approached for identification a mile off the coast of the Villa Clara province when the people aboard opened fire.

“As the Cuban regime enters its final hour, the cry for freedom is no longer a whisper. It is a roar,” said Salazar, a daughter of Cuban exiles, in a statement late Monday. “Rosa María Payá embodies the moral courage this dictatorship has tried to crush for decades and failed to extinguish."

Canada's foreign minister says her country is working on an aid package for Cuba as it faces blackouts and severe fuel shortages worsened by a U.S. oil embargo. Foreign Minister Anita Anand declined to give details because they are still working on it. Canada would be joining Mexico in providing aid.

She said she is speaking out because the "Cuban people are suffering in an echo chamber where no one can hear them because to speak is to risk your life."

Drivers in Cuba are facing the prospects of waiting several months to refuel their cars, as fuel shortages caused by a U.S. oil siege intensify. To avoid chaos outside gas stations, Cuba's government last week made it obligatory for drivers to use an app known as Ticket to get refueling appointments.

COMMENTARY President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio seem to have tuned out Venezuelan and Cuban exile leaders — and their own rhetoric about blocking China's influence in the Americas.

Miami Republican Congressmen Carlos Gimenez and other Cuban exile leaders are urging the Trump administration to cancel all export licenses that send luxury goods to communist Cuba — even though data indicate it's hardly a problem.