For more than two decades, the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes denied that soldiers sent by Havana were present in Venezuela. They insisted that only civilians were in the country assisting with health and social assistance missions.
During his first term as US president, in April 2019, Donald Trump denounced the presence of Cuban military personnel in the country. The allegation drew a swift response at the time from Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel: “There are no military operations, nor Cuban troops in Venezuela.”
Last Saturday, the denials came to an abrupt end.
The US attack and seizure of president Nicolás Maduro exposed the cracks in the denial and raised questions for both Venezuela and Cuba.
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The Venezuelan government initially did not report a casualty count. On Sunday, the Havana regime revealed that 32 Cuban soldiers had been killed during the US assault. Cuba’s statement came only after the US government reported that many Cubans were among those killed.
Subsequently, the government in Caracas provided a figure of 24 Venezuelan soldiers killed.
The deceased Cubans were members of the country’s “revolutionary armed forces” or the ministry of the interior, serving on missions in Venezuela “at the request of counterpart agencies”.
These soldiers “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”, stated the official Cuban government, which decreed two days of mourning last Monday.
[ Cuba says 32 of its citizens were killed in US attacks on VenezuelaOpens in new window ]
Why did the majority of officials responsible for Nicolás Maduro’s security come from a country other than the one he governed?
For the captured president, the Cuban reinforcements proved ineffective. No US officers were killed, according to the Trump administration. Analysts say Venezuelan security forces have long relied on foreign officers – dating back to Hugo Chávez’s presidency – valuing their expertise and hard-earned experience in countering US intelligence operations.
Until now, there was no clear evidence of this.
The US operation has also thrown Venezuela’s claims of sovereignty into sharp relief. For years, ordinary Venezuelans have complained about foreign soldiers patrolling their streets, raising doubts about the regime’s commitment to national independence.
Experts note that these troops have long propped up the government’s repressive machinery, a system routinely used to crush protests and silence dissent.
Without fully clarifying the scope and magnitude of the Cuban soldiers’ presence in Venezuela, the country’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, decreed seven days of national mourning on Tuesday in honour of the young soldiers who gave their lives in defence of the country.
The only change to presidential security announced so far has been the dismissal and arrest of Gen Javier Marcano Tábata, who until Wednesday was chief of the presidential security corps and military intelligence police. He had faced harsh criticism from government officials and lawmakers over the inability of intelligence forces to protect Maduro.
Nothing has been said about the return of foreign soldiers to their countries of origin.
