"This is Cuba's reality today: defending itself from terrorists based in the United States while that country's government attempts to strangle its economy with a brutal blockade," said activist Cheryl LaBash in statements to Prensa Latina.

Condemning the armed incursion that took place on the morning of February 25, when a speedboat bearing Florida registration entered Cuban territorial waters, the co-chair of the National Network on Cuba (NNOC) — a coalition of more than 60 organizations — recalled the long history of terrorist actions organized and financed from U.S. territory over the course of decades.

"I encourage everyone traveling to Cuba to visit the Memorial de la Denuncia in Havana to learn how much the Cuban people have suffered from these aggressions, including speedboats carrying armed individuals who attacked beaches and tourist areas," she said.

LaBash recalled that the 1990s witnessed a series of terrorist attacks in Cuba carried out by counter-revolutionary groups. One such act of violence, in 1997, claimed the life of young Italian national Fabio di Celmo when a bomb exploded at a hotel in the Cuban capital.

The activist further denounced that U.S. forces "have killed more than 100 Caribbean nationals in small vessels, even killing any survivors." She added that "the fishermen on these boats are not interrogated — they simply bomb them," a stark accusation directed at what she characterized as a policy of impunity.

Yet the U.S. government "continues to act as both judge and executioner," LaBash stated, reiterating the demand — now a collective outcry — that Cuba be removed from the unilateral State Sponsors of Terrorism list. "Let the real terrorist stand up!" she declared.

She also addressed the executive order signed by President Donald Trump on January 29, which she characterized as "an open declaration of war against the Cuban people." Through this coercive measure, she warned, authorities seek to "impose collective punishment on the Cuban people, attempting to force them to rise up against their government and the socialist programs that have meant so much, not only for Cuba but for the rest of the world."

In a separate statement, the NNOC condemned the latest act of aggression and the "armed provocations against a sovereign nation that endanger lives, embolden reckless actors, heighten tensions in the Caribbean, and undermine regional stability."

The coalition urged that this incident be understood within the broader context of more than six decades of U.S. hostility toward Cuba — a sustained campaign that has deliberately restricted the country's access to fuel, banking, and global commerce in an effort to force a political capitulation.

"Cuba has the right to defend its territorial waters and protect its sovereignty," the NNOC emphasized.