The Cuban government said 32 officers of the Cuban army and the Interior Ministry were killed in Caracas during the raid by U.S. forces to apprehend Venezuela’s strongman Nicolás Maduro early Saturday, in an acknowledgment of the presence of Cuban military and intelligence personnel in the South American country.
The statement published in the country’s largest daily, Granma, came after President Donald Trump said Cubans providing personal security to Maduro died during the extraction operation.
“Many Cubans lost their lives last night. They were protecting Maduro. That was not a good move,” Trump told the New York Post.
The Cuban government said the officers died in action but did not specify their mission, nor did it explicitly mention Maduro in the statement. The statement indicates that at least some of the officers were on the Fuerte Tiuna military base, where U.S. Delta forces found Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
“True to their responsibilities for security and defense, our compatriots fulfilled their duty with dignity and heroism and fell, after fierce resistance, in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of the bombing of the facilities,” the statement published in Granma on Sunday evening said.
Later, Cuba’s leader, Miguel Díaz-Canel, added that the Cuban officers were protecting Maduro and Flores.
“Honor and glory to the brave Cuban fighters who fell while confronting terrorists in imperial uniforms, who kidnapped and illegally removed the President of Venezuela and his wife from their country, whose lives our men helped protect at the request of that sister nation,” Díaz-Canel said on X.
Cuba’s version seems to contradict remarks by Gen. Vladimir Padrino Lopez, Maduro’s defense minister, who accused U.S. forces of killing a large part of Maduro’s security team “in cold blood.”
Citing an anonymous Venezuelan official, The New York Times has reported that at least 40 people died during the U.S. attack.
The Cuban government’s statement is a rare public acknowledgment of the island’s direct support of Maduro with security and intelligence personnel. The Interior Ministry runs Cuba’s intelligence agencies, though the armed forces have their own intelligence apparatus too. In the past, the Cuban government has denied it has a military presence in Venezuela.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Maduro’s “internal security apparatus is entirely controlled by Cubans. It was Cubans that guarded Maduro. He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards.”
Following the capture of Maduro, Trump said his administration is likely to turn its attention to Cuba, which he called a “failing” nation, though he ruled out a similar military action against the country.
On comments aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said the Cuban government could collapse soon.
“Cuba looks like it’s ready to fall. I don’t know if they’re going to hold on,” Trump said, adding that the island survives because of aid from Venezuela.
“Cuba now has no income,” he added. “They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil. They’re not getting any of it. Cuba literally is ready to fall.”
Rubio said the Cuban government should be “worried” about the events in Venezuela and sent it a warning:
“I think they’re in a lot of trouble, yes,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I’m not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going to be right now in this regard. But I don’t think it’s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime, who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro.”
Díaz-Canel declared two days of national mourning for the Cubans who died in what he called “the criminal attack” by U.S. forces, according to a presidential decree. Defiant, he had called for the “immediate” release of Maduro, an “urgent reaction” from the international community and vowed “Cuba’s absolute support and solidarity with the sister Bolivarian Republic and its government.”
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