Tutorial CLI cannot produce to topic

In the tutorial at Learn Kafka - Apache Kafka Tutorials and Resources | Confluent Developer it is possible to execute the steps up to producing a message but then an error is given.

confluent kafka topic produce quickstart

he%3|1704898237.804|FAIL|Confluent-CLI_v3.46.0#producer-1| [thrd:sasl_ssl://pkc-p11xm.us-east-1.aws.confluent.cloud:9092/bootstr]: sasl_ssl://pkc-p11xm.us-east-1.aws.confluent.cloud:9092/bootstrap: Connect to ipv4#34.233.240.208:9092 failed: Connection refused (after 44ms in state CONNECT)

The api key has been set according to the tutorial. Does ssl have to be configured ? I am using linux.

What Linux flavor / version are you on?