MIAMI — At the center of Cuba’s story that its coast guard last week thwarted a counterrevolutionary invasion of the island is a 24-foot fishing boat reported stolen from the Florida Keys.

As the Cuban government tells it, 10 men took off from Marathon aboard two vessels and then piled everyone and everything onto one boat after the other broke down. Cuban authorities say the group was traveling at close to 30 miles per hour as they tailed their vessel in territorial waters on Feb. 25 before the men on board opened fire, striking a coast guard commander and leading to an open-water firefight.

While the 24-foot Pro-Line boat seized by the Cuban government is perfect for a day of fishing just offshore, or to go lobstering, experts note it’s hardly the type of vessel you’d want to take on the 90-mile journey to Cuba from the Keys, especially loaded down with everything the government claims was on board: 12 rifles, 2 shotguns, 11 handguns and 12,846 rounds of ammunition, plus backpacks, a generator and other supplies and weapons.

So far, the Trump administration has been mostly silent on Havana’s narrative while conducting its own investigation. But some have wondered whether the boat could have actually carried all those men and all that equipment, while noting that Cuba has already admitted that it has released at least some inaccurate information.

Here’s what we know has been true, false and questionable about Cuba’s story since it first announced its forces had wounded or killed a group of Cuban nationals who had invaded its territory.

FALSE

The boat involved in the incident was a speedboat.

The 1981 Pro-Line seized by the Cuban government is not a speedboat, but rather a center-console open fishing boat. The exact horsepower of the boat was not clearly visible on the engine cover shown in a photograph released by the Cuban government. Nevertheless, the vessel in the picture does not fit the definition of a speedboat, which typically have multiple higher-horsepower engines.

Roberto Azcorra Consuegra was aboard the vessel.

Initially, the Cuban government identified seven detained men in its custody. But the following day, authorities acknowledged that they had erroneously identified Roberto Azcorra Consuegra as being aboard the doomed voyage.

Azcorra Consuegra told the Miami Herald he had been in Miami the whole time and had been possibly targeted for his political activism against Havana.

“I’m scared,” he said. “I don’t know the regime’s intentions for naming me as detained if I’m here in Miami. I’m afraid it could be some kind of retaliation against my family over there. I don’t know if they made a mistake or released the wrong list.”

The Cuban government later acknowledged its error and identified Roberto Alvarez Avila as one of the men aboard the vessel instead.

PROBLEMATIC

The Cuban coast guard killed four men.

The Cuban government initially announced that four men had died during the clash with the boat. It identified Michael Ortega Casanova among the dead. A day later, it announced the deaths of Pavel Alling Peña, Ledián Padrón Guevara and Hector Duani Cruz Correa.

But on Friday, officials changed their story without explanation. The Cuban government said three men had died and seven were wounded during the incident. If only three men died, it’s unclear which of the men the government previously claimed had been killed is still alive.

QUESTIONABLE

Ten men, 25 guns, 12,846 rounds of ammunition and more on the boat.

The Cuban government’s account of 10 men piling onto one 24-foot vessel with thousands of bullets, dozens of guns and a small mountain of equipment sparked derision online from skeptics who asked: How could so many people fit onto one boat loaded up with so much equipment?

Pro-Line did not respond Tuesday to requests for comment about the weight capacity of the 1981 vessel.

Bobby Dube spent 32 years patrolling the Keys for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission before retiring four years ago. He’s seen a lot of crazy things on the water, and a lot of different types of vessels people from Cuba use to come to South Florida, from makeshift rafts to inner tubes.

But going to Cuba to stage some sort of attack would likely take a larger boat capable of carrying ample amounts of extra fuel.

Dube said it’s highly unlikely the Pro-Line could have made it to Cuba with all of those people, guns and ammunition without at least having extra tanks or drums of fuel, which would have taken up even more room on the small boat.

“Anything is possible these days, but it’s highly unlikely. Can you fit 10 people on there? Yeah. But it’s unlikely to make it on moderate seas all the way out there,” Dube, 59, told the Miami Herald. “I just don’t see it happening.”

Dube said the extra fuel needed to be stowed on board would have displaced the people the Cubans say were on the boat. If what the government says is true of the boat and its cargo, it was only prepared for a one-way trip.

“Even on a pretty day, if you leave from Key West and come back, that’s an 180-mile run. You might make it there, but you ain’t making it back,” Dube said.

SUPPORTED BY THE FACTS

The men who traveled to Cuba wanted to topple Cuba’s communist government.

Havana has said that the incident was a “terrorist attempt” against the Cuban revolution. On Friday, authorities circulated photos of the weapons they said the men planned to use. Officials displayed rows upon rows of rifles and guns, coolers full of bullets, walkie-talkies and camo uniforms. The uniforms appear to have the logo of an anti-Cuban government group known as Partido Democratico 30 de noviembre. Cuban leaders accuse one of its Florida-based leaders of being the mastermind behind the botched overthrow attempt and also said items had the insignia of another group known as Autodefensa del Pueblo.

So far, nothing has been heard from the men, who are presumed to be dead or detained in Cuba. However, some of the men’s social media offers potential clues into why they were on that boat.

One of the men Cuba identified as deceased, Pavel Alling Peña, grew singularly focused on Cuba’s liberation on his Facebook in recent months. He circulated several AI-generated videos of Cubans rising up against the government. In one of the videos, dozens of boats are hoisting Cuban flags as they depart Miami, with the message, “Let’s go, exiles!”

Another of the men Cuba said was in its custody, Conrado Galindo, shared an AI-generated image of himself in camo with patches of U.S. flags and holding an assault rifle, the Cuban flag overlayed on top. The photo, from Jan. 1, is captioned “todo por la libertad,” or “anything for freedom.”

And Amijail Sánchez González, another of the allegedly detained, regularly posted about fighting to free Cuba against communism. Cuban authorities had previously put Sánchez on a list of wanted terrorists. Other names on the terrorism list include Miami exiles, journalists and influencers. On his Facebook page, Sánchez González said he was a leader of the Autodefensa del Pueblo group.

TRUE

Cuba’s forces shot U.S. citizens on Feb. 25.

While the Trump administration has said very little about the incident, the U.S. State Department has confirmed that there was a shooting involving Cuban forces and a group of people who had been living in the United States. One U.S. citizen was killed and another wounded, according to the State Department, and several others involved were possibly permanent legal residents.

Cuba said that it was in communication with its U.S. counterparts about the incident and that it had opened fire on the boat after its passengers attacked them first.

The boat came from Florida.

Cuban authorities said the intercepted boat was registered in Florida under the license number FL7726SH. They released photos of the boat displaying its identification. That registration number corresponds to a 24-foot Pro Line boat reported stolen from the Florida Keys on Wednesday, according to a police report.

The records from Monroe County Sheriff’s Office say that Angel Montera reported his boat stolen the night of Feb. 25, after media called him about the incident. A neighbor said she had witnessed a man the day before pull up to the Big Pine Key house where the boat is kept and take off in the vessel. Montera later said that the Chevy truck belonged to Hector Cruz Correa, a 42-year-old tile contractor who did work for him and had not been given permission to use the boat. Cruz Correa had been trying to fix his own vessel and had two daughters in Cuba, Montera said. Cuban authorities reported Hector Duani Cruz Correa to be among the dead.

Cuba said that a second boat had been abandoned en route after experiencing technical difficulties, and all the men then went to one boat to reach Cuba. However, the second alleged boat has not been identified by media or authorities in neither the U.S. nor Cuba.

_____

©2026 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.