Cuba will repatriate on Thursday the bodies of the 32 soldiers who died in Venezuela

Havana.- Cuba will repatriate on Thursday the bodies of the 32 Cuban military personnel who died during the United States attacks on Venezuela that culminated in the capture of that country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, the island’s government reported this Monday.

According to a statement from the Executive, the remains of the 32 “combatants” will arrive on Thursday morning at Havana’s international airport, where they will receive a posthumous tribute. Subsequently, they will be transferred to the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Minfar), near the Plaza de la Revolución, where they will be exhibited. The following morning, public access will be allowed and in the afternoon they will be buried in the pantheons for the Fallen for the Defense of their respective provinces.

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The Government also announced that a demonstration will be held on Friday at the Anti-Imperialist Tribune, a square in front of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba.

Cuban-Venezuelan Collaboration Since 2006

One day after the attacks in Venezuela, the island Executive confirmed that 32 soldiers died in “combative actions” and “after fierce resistance in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of the bombings.” In the US operation, “so far” 100 people died, according to the Ministry of the Interior of the South American country. Many analysts had pointed out that Maduro’s first personal security circle was mainly made up of Cubans, something that Caracas and Havana had never confirmed.

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A 2022 report by the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela (FFMV) concluded, after analyzing “confidential written agreements” between Caracas and Havana, that this collaboration dates back to 2006, when Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro were presidents, respectively.

This document, submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council, states that “Cuban state agents had instructed and advised the Venezuelan General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence” in “some of its intelligence and counterintelligence activities.”

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, warned Cuba on Sunday that it will no longer receive money or oil from Venezuela, noting that the island has been “living for years” thanks to Venezuelan money and crude oil in exchange for “security services” for the “last two dictators (Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro)”.