Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel delivers a speech as he flutters a Venezuelan national flag in support of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in Havana on January 3, 2026, after US forces captured him. President Donald Trump said Saturday that US forces had captured Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro after bombing the capital Caracas and other cities in a dramatic climax to a months-long standoff between Trump and his Venezuelan arch-foe. (Photo by ADALBERTO ROQUE / AFP via Getty Images)
Adalberto Roque | Afp | Getty Images
Cuba announced on Monday that 32 of its citizens were killed in combat during the U.S. raid on Venezuela.
The raid on Saturday, which saw U.S. forces arrest and extract Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to New York, reportedly saw a large part of his security team killed.
The Cubans were performing missions on behalf of the Cuban Armed Forces and interior ministry, the country’s presidential office said on Facebook.
“Faithful to their responsibilities with security and defense, our compatriots fulfilled their duty with dignity and heroically and fell, after ferocious resistance, into direct combat against the attackers or as a result of the bombings of the facilities,” the statement said, according to a translation by Facebook.
Cuba also called the U.S. strikes a “criminal act of aggression and state terrorism,” and said the Cuban government will pay tribute to the dead.
The U.S. strikes came after weeks of military buildup in the region and threats by U.S. President Donald Trump against Maduro.
After the raid, Trump said that the U.S. was going to “run” Venezuela, “until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. will use leverage gained from its oil blockade on the country and regional military buildup to achieve its policy aims.
“We want Venezuela to move in a certain direction,” Rubio told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker.
Seperately, Rubio said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” that as the U.S. has a “quaratine” on Venezuelan oil.
“That means their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and the interests of the Venezuelan people are met, and that’s what we intend to do,” he added.
The U.S. in recent months has seized tankers associated with the country and moved military ships and warplanes into the Caribbean.
— CNBC’s Garrett Downs contributed to this report.
