A Florida truck driver who was killed in a shootout with Cuba’s coast guard has been pictured for the first time.
Michel Ortega Casanova fell into an “obsessive and diabolical quest” for Cuba’s freedom, according to his brother.
He was among the 10 Cuban nationals who allegedly took a Florida-registered speedboat packed with weapons and ammunition to infiltrate Cuba, Havana officials said.
Casanova’s brother, Misael, said his brother “became so obsessed” with the plot that neither he nor the three others killed in the incident thought “about the consequences.”
“My mother is devastated,” Misael told the Associated Press after his family learned of Casanova’s death.
Misael, who spoke about how Cubans had endured “great suffering,” said his family was in the dark about the operation, which Caribbean authorities defined as an attempt to infiltrate the country for “terrorist ends.”
The brother, however, said he could tell something was wrong when he failed to connect with his brother over the weekend.
“He always called me on Sundays. When I tried to contact him and he didn’t answer, I found it strange,” he told the US-based Marti Noticias.
Casanova had lived in the US for more than 20 years and leaves behind his mom, two sisters — one of whom still lives in Cuba — and a pregnant daughter.
Along with Casanova, Cuban officials identified Amijail Sánchez González and Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez as suspects who were arrested aboard the vessel.
Both men were wanted by Cuban authorities “based on their involvement in the promotion, planning, organization, financing, support or commission of actions carried out in the national territory or in other countries, in connection with acts of terrorism,” officials said.
Both González and Gómez were identified as six of the people injured in the shootout with Cuban troops, with the others including Conrado Galindo Sariol, José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló, Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara, and Roberto Azcorra Consuegra.
Three other suspects who were arrested during the incident have yet to be publicly named.
Despite being named by the Cuban government as one of the people injured and arrested in the shoot out, Azcorra Consuegra denied any involvement as he called in from southern Florida, NBC Miami reported.
