Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel speaks while waving the Venezuelan flag in support of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, who was detained by the US military in Havana on January 3, 2026. President Donald Trump announced Saturday that U.S. forces had captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro after bombing the capital, Caracas, and other cities, in a dramatic climax to a months-long standoff between Trump and Venezuela’s biggest adversary. (Photo by ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP via Getty Images)
Adalberto Roque AFP | Getty Images
Cuba announced on Monday that 32 of its citizens had been killed in fighting during a U.S. raid on Venezuela.
In Saturday’s raid, U.S. forces arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and took him to New York, where the majority of his security team reportedly died.
The Cubans were carrying out a mission on behalf of the Cuban National Armed Forces and Interior Ministry, the country’s president’s office said on Facebook.
“True to their duty of security and defense, our compatriots heroically discharged their duty with dignity and, after fierce resistance or as a result of the bombing of their facilities, found themselves in direct combat with the attackers,” the statement said, according to a Facebook translation.
Cuba also called the U.S. airstrike a “criminal act of aggression and state terrorism” and said the Cuban government would mourn the dead.
The US airstrikes followed weeks of military buildup in the region and US President Donald Trump’s threats against Maduro.
After the attack, President Trump said the United States would “run” Venezuela “until there is a safe, proper and wise transition of power.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would leverage the national and regional military buildup gained from the oil blockade to achieve its policy goals.
“I want Venezuela to move in a certain direction,” Rubio told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker.
Separately, Rubio said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” that the U.S. is conducting a “quarantine” on Venezuelan oil.
“That means the Venezuelan economy cannot move forward unless conditions are met that are in the interests of the United States and the interests of the Venezuelan people, and we will do so,” he added.
In recent months, the United States has seized tankers associated with the country and moved warships and military aircraft to the Caribbean.
—CNBC’s Garrett Downs contributed to this report.
