The Cuban Communist Party’s revelation that dozens of its agents were killed in the U.S. operation to apprehend Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro on Sunday confirmed years of evidence that Maduro relied on the state sponsor of terror, not his own citizens, for his security.
The official Communist Party newspaper Granma shared the news on Sunday night that it had identified 32 fighters killed in Caracas during the American operation to arrest Maduro and his wife, “first combatant” Cilia Flores, in execution of an indictment listing a host of alleged crimes including “narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machineguns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machineguns and destructive devices against the United States.” The U.S. government was offering $50 million for information leading to Maduro’s arrest, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested on Saturday no one earned.
Wanted poster for Nicolas Maduro. (State.gov)
According to Granma, the Cubans killed in the approximately 2.5-hour operation were present around Maduro’s Miraflores Palace “carrying out missions on behalf of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, at the request of counterpart agencies in the South American country.” The communist regime declared a two-day period of mourning for its militants.
“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 bombing of the facilities,” Granma declared. It did not specify what sort of missions or “duty” the Cubans were performing at the time of their demise.
The confirmation of the dozens killed followed President Donald Trump hinting to reporters that many regime Cubans were killed in the operation, though no reports suggest that any civilians were harmed during the operation and the American contingent reportedly sustained minimal damage.
“You know, a lot of Cubans were killed yesterday,” Trump said. “There was a lot of death on the other side, but no death on our side. But there was a lot of death on the other side, unfortunately. A lot of Cubans were killed yesterday, trying to protect him [Maduro].”
The massive presence of Cuban regime agents in Venezuela, specifically to help Maduro maintain his stranglehold on power despite his illegitimacy, has long been documented by human rights groups and American officials. Secretary of State Rubio, hours before Granma‘s confirmation, noted during an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press that intelligence suggested Maduro knew how hated he was among his own people and relied on the Cuban Communist Party military apparatus for protection.
“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,” Rubio explained. “His entire, like, internal security force, his internal security apparatus is entirely controlled by Cubans.”
“One of the untold stories here is how, in essence – you talk about colonization … The ones who have sort of colonized, at least inside the regime, are Cubans. It was Cubans that guarded Maduro. He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards,” Rubio emphasized.
Rubio has warned for years that Maduro’s close ties to the communist regime in Cuba was what allowed him to retain power following the death of his predecessor Hugo Chávez, despite robust but secretive challenges from other leaders within the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). In an interview with Breitbart News in 2019, Rubio, then a senator, explained that Maduro “spent a lot of time in Cuba” and won the support of the Castro regime.
“He spent a lot of time in Cuba; it’s the reason the Cubans wanted him to be [late dictator Hugo] Chávez’s successor: because he is committed to that model,” Rubio noted. “But the majority of the people in his inner circle, the key people, the seven to eight people that really hold up the regime, are not ideological, to varying degrees, but not like him.”
For years, human rights activists specializing in Venezuela denounced that thousands of Cuban regime operatives were responsible for propping up Maduro, who faced years of nationwide peaceful protests calling for an end to socialism.
“Without the direct tutelage of Raúl Castro, his military junta, the Communist Party of Cuba, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, and the entire intelligence and counterintelligence apparatus of the Castros [and their officials] … the government of Maduro would have succumbed already,” Roberto Álvarez Quiñones of the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba observed in 2017.
The then-head of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, speaking before the U.S. Congress, estimated that about 15,000 Cuban agents were helping run the Maduro regime. Almagro referred to the situation as an “occupation army” colonizing the country.
That same year, retired Venezuelan Maj. Gen. Antonio Rivera told reporters that the Cuban colonization predated Maduro: “By 2010, there was a permanent presence of approximately 92,700 Cubans carrying various missions in all areas and sectors of the [socialist] government.”
A 2019 report by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba titled Cubazuela: Chronicle of a Cuban Intervention described between 25,000 and 50,000 Cuban regime “military advisers” working in Venezuela, aiding in “intelligence and counterintelligence, protection of personalities and police repression, as well as a large group of civilians in functions of political proselytism, ideological influence and military reserve.”
Following Maduro’s arrest, the government of Venezuela is currently being led by interim President Delcy Rodríguez, an ardent Marxist and longtime vice president and oil minister. Rodríguez, President Trump revealed on Saturday, has been in close communication with Secretary of State Rubio and presented a cooperative disposition.
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