Venezuela’s Defence Minister, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, has said that 50 Venezuelan soldiers were killed during US raids on January 3 in the capital, Caracas, which resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
“Nine women soldiers were among 50 security personnel who died that night,” Lopez said on Friday, adding that a total of 83 people lost their lives in the surprise attack by US military forces.
Among those killed in the action were also 32 Cuban soldiers, some of whom had been assigned to President Maduro’s personal protection team. Their remains arrived in small boxes on Thursday in Cuba, and were received by Cuban authorities.
During a commemoration ceremony for the fallen, Lopez said: “What have the men and women of our Bolivarian National Armed Forces done in the face of military aggression? They gave their lives, and honoured history and the homeland.”
Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said earlier this week that experts would need to use DNA testing to identify victims, as some of them were blown to “little pieces” in the US attack.
In the attack, which Trump said was aimed at seizing Venezuelan oil reserves, more than 112 people had been injured.
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On Friday, tens of thousands of Cubans protested outside the US embassy in Havana over Washington’s killing of its soldiers by the US. Cuban President, Miguel Díaz-Canel, shook hands with the protesters before giving a speech in which he said Washington had “opened the door to an era of barbarism, plunder and neo-fascism”.
“No one here surrenders. The current emperor of the White House and his infamous secretary of state haven’t stopped threatening me,” he said.
“Cuba does not have to make any political concessions. They must understand this. We are always open to dialogue and improving ties between the two nations, but only when they are based on equal terms and mutual respect,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration, which had begun seizing Venezuelan oil tankers in the Caribbean waters in September, 2025, and bombing boats that it claimed carried drugs, has threatened military action against Cuba and Colombia over their alleged “involvement” in drug trafficking to the US. The claims remain unsubstantiated so far in the face of lack of evidence.
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