Thirty-two Cuban officers were killed in Venezuela over the weekend during an American military operation, the Cuban government has confirmed, marking the first official acknowledgement of the fatalities.
According to a statement broadcast on Cuban state television on Sunday night, the military and police personnel were engaged in a mission undertaken by the Caribbean nation’s military at the behest of the Venezuelan government.
The precise nature of their work in the South American country remains undisclosed. However, Cuba and Venezuela share a close alliance, with Havana having dispatched military and police forces to assist in various operations over several years.
“You know, a lot of Cubans were killed yesterday,” U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew Sunday night from Florida back to Washington. “There was a lot of death on the other side. No death on our side.”
Cuba’s government announced two days of mourning.
“Faithful 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 bombings of the facilities,” the official statement added.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was due to appear in a U.S. court on Monday after his weekend capture by American forces, with U.S. President Donald Trump leaving open the possibility of another incursion if the United States doesn’t get its way with the country’sinterim leader.
Trump told reporters on Sunday that he could order another strike if Venezuela does not cooperate with U.S. efforts to open up its oil industry and stop drug trafficking. He also threatened military action in Colombia and Mexico and said Cuba’s communist regime “looks like it’s ready to fall” on its own.
The remarks by Trump came on the eve of Maduro’s scheduled appearance on Monday before a federal judge in New York. Maduro was detained during a military raid on Saturday in Caracas that drew international concern and plunged Venezuela into uncertainty.
Trump administration officials have portrayed the seizure as a law-enforcement action to hold Maduro accountable for criminal charges filed in 2020 that accuse him of narco-terrorism conspiracy. But Trump himself has said other factors were at play, saying the raid was prompted in part by an influx of Venezuelan immigrants to the United States and the country’s decision to nationalize U.S. oil interests decades ago.
“We’re taking back what they stole,” he said aboard Air Force One as he returned on Sunday to Washington from Florida. “We’re in charge.”
Oil companies will return to Venezuela and rebuild the country’s petroleum industry, Trump said. “They’re going to spend billions of dollars and they’re going to take the oil out of the ground,” he said.
Global oil prices edged up in choppy trade as investors considered the implications of U.S. military action in Venezuela, while stock markets rose in Asia. MKTS/GLOB
Meanwhile, Maduro’s government remains in power in Caracas, and top officials have remained defiant.
