The government reported that 32 of its citizens, identified as members of the island’s armed forces and intelligence services, were killed during the U.S. operation that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, leading to the declaration of two days of national mourning in their honor.
The specific locations where the personnel were stationed during the raid remain unclear. However, their deaths have intensified the examination of years of reporting and international investigations that chronicle Cuba’s profound and clandestine role within Venezuela’s military and intelligence frameworks.
According to Venezuelan political analyst Jorge Jraissati, Cuba’s intelligence function was vital for the consolidation of power initially under Hugo Chávez and subsequently under Maduro. “Experts typically identify Cuba as Venezuela’s most significant intelligence supplier. This encompasses matters such as managing elections, constructing diplomatic influence with other nations, and controlling the security forces, among other things,” he stated to Digital.
Jraissati added that any political transition in Venezuela “would necessitate the American government, collaborating with the Venezuelan people, to jointly work on reducing Cuban influence over Venezuela’s state institutions and society in general.”
An investigation published in August 2019 revealed that two confidential pacts signed in 2008 gave Cuba extensive access to Venezuela’s armed forces and intelligence services. The report indicated that these agreements authorized Cuban officials to train Venezuelan soldiers, overhaul intelligence agencies, and assist in developing an internal surveillance apparatus aimed at monitoring Venezuela’s own military.
The investigation concluded that these arrangements were instrumental in reshaping Venezuela’s military counterintelligence agency—the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM)—into a unit intended to identify dissent, foster fear among personnel, and guarantee loyalty to the government.
These conclusions were subsequently supported by the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, which confirmed it examined a 2008 memorandum of understanding between Cuba and Venezuela. The U.N. mission stated the agreement allowed for Cuban advisory supervision in the reorganization of Venezuelan military intelligence, covering the establishment of new agencies, instruction of counterintelligence officers, and support with surveillance and infiltration methods.
Former Venezuelan officials referenced in reports have depicted Cuban advisers positioned within some of the nation’s most critical institutions, such as the civilian intelligence service SEBIN, DGCIM, the defense ministry, ports and airports, and Venezuela’s national identification system.
Human rights groups and international investigators assert these frameworks were key to the government’s actions during mass protests in 2014 and 2017, when Venezuelan security forces conducted severe and lethal crackdowns on protesters.
The U.N. fact-finding mission recorded systematic instances of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, and torture, and indicated that Cuban advisers contributed to training Venezuelan personnel in techniques for tracking, interrogating, and suppressing political opponents.
Analysts suggest that Cuba’s acknowledgment that its military and intelligence operatives were killed during the operation has brought the alliance’s genuine extent into sharper relief, converting years of documented evidence into a pressing geopolitical matter.