Havana paid tribute to 32 Cuban soldiers killed during a U.S. military operation that removed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro from power, in a solemn ceremony attended by revolutionary leader Raul Castro and President Miguel Diaz-Canel, underscoring spiraling U.S.-Cuba tensions.
The government decreed two days of tribute for the dead, some of whom had been assigned to Maduro’s protection detail, according to Cuban officials. Twenty-one of the fallen were from the Interior Ministry, which oversees the intelligence services; the remainder were members of the armed forces.
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Cuban state media said Diaz-Canel and Castro, 94, were in full military uniform to receive the soldiers’ remains. The tribute, which drew crowds along the capital’s main arteries, fed into a daylong public homage that officials said would culminate with a gathering outside the U.S. Embassy in Havana.
At the ceremony, Interior Minister Gen. Lazaro Alberto Alvarez praised the dead as martyrs who “fought to the last bullet” during U.S. bombings and an ensuing raid by U.S. special forces that seized Maduro and his wife from their Caracas residence on Jan. 3.
“We do not receive them with resignation; we do so with profound pride,” Alvarez said, adding that the United States “will never be able to buy the dignity of the Cuban people.”
Following the ceremony, the soldiers’ caskets were transported by Jeep to the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, with residents lining the route and applauding as the procession passed.
The tribute comes as the Trump administration hardens its stance toward Havana. President Donald Trump has urged Cuba to “make a deal”—without detailing terms—or face consequences. He has also vowed to cut off all oil and money that Caracas had been providing to Cuba and has said Washington is now effectively running Venezuela following Maduro’s capture.
U.S.-Cuba relations, long fraught, have deteriorated sharply since the Jan. 3 operation. U.S. authorities have whisked Maduro and his wife to New York to face drug-trafficking charges, according to official statements. In addition to the Cuban casualties, 23 Venezuelan soldiers were killed during the strike, officials said.
The confrontation is unfolding as Cuba weathers its worst economic crisis in decades. Havana’s leaders have reacted defiantly to U.S. pressure even as the loss of Venezuelan support deepens the strain at home.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry also rebuked a U.S. announcement of humanitarian aid for victims of Hurricane Melissa, which hit in October and killed nearly 60 people across the Caribbean. In a statement, Havana called the move “political manipulation,” saying Washington had not coordinated the delivery and asserting that Cuba would welcome assistance “without conditions.”
Jeremy Lewin, the senior U.S. official for foreign assistance, cautioned Havana not to “politicize” the help. “We look at this as the first, the beginning of what we hope will be a much broader ability to deliver assistance directly to the Cuban people,” he said.
For Cuba, the tribute to the fallen was both a show of mourning and a statement of defiance—a spectacle of military ritual and public solidarity intended to project resolve as Havana navigates a new and dangerous phase in its standoff with the United States.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
