{"id":674585,"date":"2026-01-05T03:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T03:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/674585\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T03:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T03:21:10","slug":"cuba-says-32-cuban-fighters-killed-in-us-raids-on-venezuela-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/674585\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuba says 32 Cuban fighters killed in US raids on Venezuela | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

DEVELOPING STORY<\/strong>DEVELOPING STORY, <\/p>\n

Havana declares two days of mourning for the Cubans killed in US operation to abduct Nicolas Maduro.<\/p>\n

Cuba has announced the death of 32 \u2060of its \u200bcitizens during the United States military operation to abduct and detain<\/a> Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro<\/a> and his wife in Caracas.<\/p>\n

Havana said on Sunday that there would be two days of mourning on \u200cJanuary 5 and \u200c6 in \u2060honour of those killed and that \u200cfuneral arrangements would be announced.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

The state-run Prensa Latina agency said the Cuban \u201cfighters\u201d were killed while \u201ccarrying out missions\u201d on behalf of the country\u2019s military, at the request of the Venezuelan government.<\/p>\n

The agency said the slain Cubans \u201cfell in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of the bombing of the facilities\u201d after offering \u201cfierce resistance\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cuba is a close ally of Venezuela\u2019s government, and has sent military and police forces to assist in operations in the Latin American country for years.<\/p>\n

Maduro and his wife have been flown to New York following the US operation to face prosecution on drug-related charges. The 63-year-old Venezuelan leader is due to appear in court on Monday.<\/p>\n

He has previously denied criminal involvement.<\/p>\n

Images of Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed<\/a> by US forces have stunned Venezuelans.<\/p>\n

Venezuelan Minister of Defence General Vladimir Padrino said on state television that the US attack killed soldiers, civilians and a \u201clarge part\u201d of Maduro\u2019s security detail \u201cin cold blood\u201d.<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s armed forces have been activated to guarantee sovereignty, he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018A lot of Cubans\u2019 killed<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday, said that \u201cthere was a lot of death on the other side\u201d during the raids.<\/p>\n

He said that \u201ca lot of Cubans\u201d were killed and that there was \u201cno death on our side\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump went on to threaten<\/a> Colombian President Gustavo Petro, saying that a US military operation in the country sounded \u201cgood\u201d to him.<\/p>\n

But he suggested that a US military intervention in Cuba is unlikely, because the island appears to be ready to fall on its own.<\/p>\n

\u201cCuba is ready to fall. Cuba looks like it\u2019s ready to fall. I don\u2019t know how they, if they can, hold that, but Cuba now has no income. They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not getting any of it. Cuba literally is ready to fall. And you have a lot of great Cuban Americans that are going to be very happy about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US attack on Venezuela marked the most controversial intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u00a0has described Maduro\u2019s abduction as a law-enforcement mission to force him to face US criminal charges filed in 2020, including \u201cnarco-terrorism\u201d conspiracy.<\/p>\n

But Trump also said that US oil companies needed \u201ctotal access<\/a>\u201d to the country\u2019s vast reserves and suggested that an influx of Venezuelan immigrants to the US also factored into the decision to abduct Maduro.<\/p>\n

While many Western nations oppose Maduro, there were many calls<\/a> for the US to respect international law, and questions arose over the legality of abducting a foreign head of state.<\/p>\n

Left-leaning regional leaders, including those of Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Mexico, have largely denounced\u00a0Maduro\u2019s removal<\/a>, while countries with right-wing governments, from Argentina to Ecuador, have largely welcomed it.<\/p>\n

The United Nations Security Council plans to meet on Monday to discuss the attack. Russia and China, both major backers of Venezuela, have criticised the US.<\/p>\n

Beijing on Sunday insisted that the safety of Maduro and his wife be a priority, and called on the US to \u201cstop toppling the government of Venezuela\u201d, calling the attack a \u201cclear violation of international law<\/a>\u201c.<\/p>\n

Moscow also said it was \u201cextremely concerned\u201d about the abduction of Maduro and his wife, and condemned what it called an \u201cact of armed aggression\u201d against Venezuela by the US.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY, Havana declares two days of mourning for the Cubans killed in US operation to abduct…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[12711,3274,12,49,978,286,659,8518],"class_list":{"0":"post-674585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-cuba","9":"tag-latin-america","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-us-canada","14":"tag-usa","15":"tag-venezuela"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115840344604247678","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}