Cuba wakes up with three U.S. military ships close to its territorial waters

Cuba woke up this Sunday with the presence of at least three U.S. military ships operating very close to its territorial waters.

The information was obtained through monitoring conducted via public maritime maps from the VesselFinder platform, commonly used for near real-time tracking of naval traffic.

Although the application does not identify the names of military vessels or provide exact and continuous real-time positions, one of the ships was located around 11:00 AM at less than eight nautical miles from the Cuban coast (Cayo Romano Occidental), that is, within the threshold that directly precedes the island's territorial waters.

According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), territorial waters extend up to a maximum of 12 nautical miles from the baseline, an area over which the state exercises full sovereignty over the water, seabed, and subsoil.

Within that space, foreign vessels—including military ones—may only pass through under the principle of "innocent passage," meaning they must do so quickly, continuously, and without engaging in hostile activities, intelligence gathering, or research.

The fact that one of the vessels was detected less than eight nautical miles away is particularly significant, as it places it just four miles from the official boundaries of Cuban territorial waters, in an area that is highly sensitive from a military and geopolitical perspective.

This movement occurs in the context of the extensive naval deployment of the United States in the Caribbean, linked to the operation Southern Spear, under which Washington has intensified the interdiction of sanctioned vessels, control of maritime routes, and pressure on networks associated with the illegal oil trafficking from Venezuela to Cuba.

In recent weeks, the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard have intercepted tankers, deployed aircraft carriers, and strengthened their presence near strategic points in the western Caribbean.

Although there is no official confirmation that the detected vessels have entered Cuban territorial waters, the recorded proximity reinforces the signal of military surveillance and deterrence at a time of heightened regional tension, marked by the collapse of Venezuela's energy supply, Washington's pressure on Havana, and a reconfiguration of the balance of power in the Caribbean.

So far, the Cuban regime has not made a public statement regarding the presence of these military vessels.