Cuban exiles on a U.S.-registered speedboat attempted to enter Cuba undetected, but were confronted by border patrol in Cuban waters on Wednesday. According to the Cuban Interior Ministry, the Cuban nationals on the speedboat fired on the border agents who then returned fire — killing four and injuring six of the men. This comes as the Trump administration’s blockade of fuel has triggered a severe humanitarian and economic crisis in Cuba, compounding the impact of the U.S. economic embargo in place since 1962. In response to the growing humanitarian crisis, activists are organizing a flotilla to deliver aid to the island. “We cannot allow us to go back to the days of gunboat diplomacy, where the U.S. thinks that it is allowed to violate sovereign nations, and it can have hegemony over the hemisphere,” says CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin, who is taking part in the flotilla. “These are sovereign countries. We must leave them alone.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.