Blackout in Cuba leaves millions without power
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Cuba said it has filed terrorism charges against six suspects it says were aboard a Florida-flagged speedboat that allegedly opened fire on soldiers in waters off the island’s north coast.
A Cuban official 13 bullet holes were found on the border guard boat and 21 others on the suspect’s vessel, “meaning that there was combat.”
The Trump administration’s decision to cut off foreign oil to the island is devastating its tourism industry, a key source of income for a government being pushed to the edge.
Air France says it will temporarily suspend flights between Paris and Havana for several weeks, citing Cuba’s fuel shortage.
The government unveiled items said to have been found on the boat, including high-powered weapons, more than 12,800 pieces of ammunition and 11 pistols.
The Cuban government says the Cuban nationals living in Florida who allegedly attempted to carry out attacks on the island will be tried on terrorism charges.
“Every single one, except, I would say, Obama, had as a policy, one way or another, to bring an end to the Cuban government,” William LeoGrande, a co-author of Back Channel to Cuba, a history of negotiations between Washington and Havana, told me.
Cuba's Interior Ministry said Wednesday night that the boat was carrying 10 people armed with assault rifles, handguns and Molotov cocktails.
The Cuban president's comments come as Cuba feels the squeeze of a recent oil blockade coupled with a halt in oil shipments from Venezuela.