Man killed on speedboat off Cuba lived in U.S. for 20 years and had "obsessive" quest for Cuba's freedom, brother says

The brother of one of the men who was killed after taking a U.S.-registered speedboat into Cuban waters and allegedly opening fire on the country's border patrol said his sibling was fixated on overthrowing Cuba's government.   The Associated Press contributed to this report. In:

The brother of one of the men who was killed after taking a U.S.-registered speedboat into Cuban waters and allegedly opening fire on the country's border patrol said his sibling was fixated on overthrowing Cuba's government.  

Misael Ortega Casanova, brother of Michael Ortega Casanova, told the Associated Press that his brother had fallen into an "obsessive and diabolical" quest to free Cuba from its communist government. Cubans in the United States and Cuban Americans have long protested the current Cuban government, and accused the island's leadership of human rights violations. 

"They became so obsessed that they didn't think about the consequences nor their own lives," Casanova said of his brother and the nine other men who were aboard the boat.  

The Cuban government said Wednesday afternoon that a speedboat registered in Florida had entered Cuban waters carrying weapons and 10 Cuban nationals who lived in the U.S. The group allegedly planned to carry out a terrorist attack on the island, the Cuban government said, and had assault rifles, handguns, Molotov cocktails, bulletproof vests, telescopic sights and camouflage uniforms aboard the vessel. Cuba's interior ministry said all 10 passengers had "a known history of criminal and violent activity."  

The speedboat was approached by a border patrol boat and opened fire on it, the government said. The border patrol returned fire, killing four people and wounding the other six passengers. The six wounded passengers were arrested and received medical assistance, the Cuban government said.