As the United States has completed a large-scale military operation to capture Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro, an analysis found that the country hit hardest during the operation was Cuba.
On Jan. 5, The New York Times (NYT), citing an official Cuban government report, reported that at least 32 of the 80 people killed in the U.S. airstrikes on Venezuela on the 3rd were Cuban nationals. They were known to be Cuban military personnel or Interior Ministry members carrying out duties at Venezuela's request.
Earlier, as the United States applied pressure by deploying fleets across the Caribbean and closing airspace, President Maduro had increased his reliance on Cuba for personnel and more. His security detail was also largely replaced with Cubans, out of concern that domestic bodyguards, whose real wages had fallen due to rapid inflation, could be bought off by outside forces. In fact, according to diplomatic sources, Maduro's bodyguards were said to speak Spanish with a Cuban accent.
In the past, Cuba has supported Venezuela's security for more than 20 years. When former Venezuela President Hugo Chávez, who adhered to hardline socialist policies and an anti-U.S. line, faced a coup in 2002, the first to extend a helping hand was former Cuba head of state Fidel Castro. This brought the two countries even closer, and Maduro, who inherited Chávez's line, is also seen as placing full trust in Cuba.
In particular, given Cuba's history of withstanding U.S. government and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) attempts at regime change for decades, there are indications that President Maduro may have relied excessively on Cuban forces. In 1961, the United States mounted the Bay of Pigs invasion to topple Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba, but it failed, strengthening the Castro government and allowing the Cuban revolutionary government to accumulate unparalleled experience in power retention, intelligence gathering, and suppression of dissent.
William LeoGrande, a professor at American University, said, "Venezuela is Cuba's most important ally," adding, "It was a very natural choice for Venezuela to entrust internal security to Cuba."
The two countries are also historically deeply rooted. When Hugo Chávez began his rule in Venezuela in 1999, he looked to Cuba as a model for socialist revolution, and the two nations evolved into fraternal states exchanging oil and human resources. Based on the world's largest reserves, Venezuela provided oil to Cuba, and Cuba reciprocated with its abundant education and medical personnel, allowing the two countries to maintain a symbiotic relationship.
María Werlau, a Cuba researcher, said, "Cuban personnel are assigned to numerous Venezuelan government ministries and the state oil company," adding, "Even President Maduro's personal security detail is estimated to include about 140 Cubans." John Bolton, who served as national security adviser during the first Donald Trump administration, also accused Cuba of "sending 20,000 thugs to Venezuela to prop up the regime."
Beyond that, Cuba has taken the lead in expanding socialist ideology by directly moving to protect leftist regimes overseas. In the 1970s, when Agostinho Neto, Angola's first president and a social activist, led the independence movement, Cuba provided military support to the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) camp. Cuba is also known to have taken part in training the security detail of Chile's socialist president, Salvador Allende.