Havana denounces “a new criminal act of aggression and state terrorism” by Washington
Cuban authorities confirmed on Tuesday the identities of the 32 members of their forces killed during Saturday’s attack by the United States against Venezuela, which resulted in the capture of the South American country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, who appeared before a New York court on Monday.
The names and photographs of the deceased have been published by the official newspaper ‘Granma’ in an article titled ‘Honor and Glory!’, which highlights the work of the “victims of a new criminal act of aggression and state terrorism” by the United States against “the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”
The article, shared by the Cuban Ministry of the Interior on its Facebook account, emphasizes that all of them “lost their lives in combat and after fierce resistance” and added that they “were carrying out missions representing the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, at the request of their counterparts” in Venezuela.
It specifies that 20 of the deceased were “combatants from the Ministry of the Interior”—including two colonels, a lieutenant, and four majors—as well as twelve “combatants from the Revolutionary Armed Forces”—including a captain, a first sergeant, and a master sergeant.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel confirmed on Sunday the death of 32 Cubans during the US attack, which included bombings against the capital, Caracas, and the states of Aragua and La Guaira, and which left dozens dead. He also declared “two days of national mourning” and ordered the Cuban flag to be flown at half-mast. Díaz-Canel emphasized that the Cuban fighters in question “fulfilled their duty with dignity and fell, after fierce resistance, in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of the bombing of the facilities, and through their heroic actions, they upheld the spirit of solidarity of millions of their compatriots.”
