The Cuban government says 32 of its citizens were killed during a U.S. operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
The dead prompted a two-day national mourning period, with military and intelligence officials describing the deaths as “in combat”.
The military added that Cuban troops “after fierce resistance either engaged in direct combat with the attackers or fell as a result of artillery fire on the facility.”
Cuba, a long-time ally of Venezuela, has provided Maduro with personal security information for years and has personnel throughout Venezuela’s military.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said his country had been protecting Maduro and his wife at Venezuela’s request.
According to U.S. General Dan Caine, U.S. spies had been monitoring Maduro’s movements for months before the U.S. military attack.
General Kane said he learned where the former leader moved, lived, traveled, ate and worked.
The New York Times reported that the CIA also recruited a “Venezuelan informant” who tipped Americans off to Maduro’s exact location.
Many of the dead are believed to have been Maduro’s close security guards who were with Maduro at the time.
Venezuela has not confirmed how many people have been killed, but the country’s military said casualties included “the majority” of Maduro’s security team.
“Our compatriots performed their duty with dignity and heroism,” the Cuban government said in an official statement.
The total death toll was 80 and expected to rise, according to an anonymous Venezuelan official cited by the New York Times. BBC News has not independently confirmed the report.
In the days following Maduro’s seizure, questions were raised about whether the Trump administration might consider a similar operation against Cuba, which, like Venezuela, has had a hostile relationship with the United States for decades.
“Military action will not be necessary because Cuba is ready to fall,” President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday.
He continued: “I don’t think we need to do anything. I think it’s going to go down. It’s going to be a countdown.”
On Saturday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described Cuba as a “disaster” run by “incompetent and old people.”
“If I lived in Havana and was in government, I would be at least a little worried,” Rubio said.
Last July, Trump signed a memorandum imposing stricter restrictions on Cuba, reversing a move by his predecessor Joe Biden and easing pressure on the Caribbean island nation.
The White House said it would stop “economic practices that disproportionately benefit the Cuban government, military, intelligence, and security services at the expense of the Cuban people.”
He also said existing restrictions on Americans visiting Cuba would be enforced more strictly.
President Trump took a similar approach toward Cuba during his first term as president, imposing numerous additional sanctions.
His administration has continued the economic embargo on Cuba despite calls from international organizations, including the United Nations, to end it.
The blockade was first implemented in 1962 and has remained in force ever since.
