A group of boaters from South Florida traveled to the waters just off Cuba, to shoot video and light fireworks to show support for protesters.
The demonstration lasted 30 minutes, then the group then returned to South Florida.
They left from Bayside Marina and stopped in Key West for fuel and inspections.
Organizers wanted to show support for Cubans who are fighting for freedom from the communist dictatorship.
The U.S. Coast Guard did not escort the group, but did keep a close watch in case of emergencies.
President Joe Biden plans to sanction individual members of the Cuban regime, as well as the "Boinas Negras" government special forces unit, in relation to human rights abuse.
The sanctions will publicly call out the individuals of committing human rights abuses.
The Boinas Negras are known as the National Special Brigade of the ministry of the Interior and were put into power by the Cuban government in response to anti-government protests under President Miguel Diaz-Canel.
The Treasury Department is "exploring" sanctions to be levied against "Cuban officials, but there is no detail on what potential sanctions might look like.
The sanctions against Boinas Negras will be handed down in adherence with the global Magnitsky Act, which authorizes the U.S. government to sanction those it sees as human rights offenders, freeze their assets and ban the individuals from entering the U.S.
The Cuban government announced that donations to the island will be allowed.
All plane passengers will be allowed to bring unlimited supplies of food, medicine, and hygiene products to the country
Gov. Ron DeSantis told demonstrators to stop blocking traffic on the state's roadways.
"We can't have that, it's dangerous for you to be shutting down a thoroughfare, you're also putting other people in jeopardy," DeSantis said. "You don't know if an emergency vehicle needs to get somewhere. And then obviously it's just disrespectful to make people stand in traffic."
Protesters blocked the Palmetto Expressway near Hialeah for about 30 minutes, during a roundtable about Cuba, DeSantis said the demonstrations in South Florida, and other parts of the state, were “fundamentally different than what we saw last summer.”
Rallies, events, and a mini-concert were taking place as local leaders and demonstrators showed their support for the protesters in Cuba.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, city commissioners and Cuban American musician Willy Chirino held a news conference to voice their support for the Cubans, who had taken to the streets to protest their government.
"We need to do whatever it is we have to do to make possible the radical political changes that need to be done in Cuba," Chirino said. "Our country is dying, our people are dying, are desperate."
Suarez, has been calling for U.S. intervention in Cuba and the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance and other groups held a rally on Calle 8 outside Cafe Versailles.
The event included a mini-concert from local Cuban American artists.
South Florida's show of support Cubans continued with demonstrators shutting down a section of the Palmetto.
The demonstrators gathered at Coral Way and Southwest 87th Avenue.
The group eventually made their way to the Palmetto Expressway, which had to be closed down near Coral Way as demonstrators sat down and began blocking traffic.
The people are fed up with the economic situation and lack of freedom under President Miguel Diaz-Canel. The coronavirus pandemic continues to deal with a third wave of new infections, and lack of tourism has gutted the economy, leaving many struggling to find food.
Diaz-Canel stoked the tensions during a televised address to the Cuban people, when he blamed the situation on U.S. trade sanctions and urged his supporters to take to the streets to "combat" the protesters.
"The order to combat has been given," he said. "Revolutionaries need to be on the streets."
Rallies in support of the Cuban people in Miami, numbered around 5,000, as people took to the streets in Little Havana.
The Biden administration voiced support for the protesters.
"We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba's authoritarian regime," President Joe Biden said in a statement.