'Terrorists in Imperial Uniform': US Forces Kill 32 Cubans During Venezuela Invasion

Cuba's government said Sunday that 32 Cubans, including military and police officers, were killed by US forces during President Donald Trump's illegal invasion of Venezuela and abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife last weekend.

“As a result of the criminal attack perpetrated by the United States government against the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela... 32 Cubans lost their lives in combative actions, who carried out missions representing the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, at the request of counterparts in the South American country,” the office of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said in a statement.

"Faithful to their responsibilities to security and defense, our compatriots fulfilled their duty with dignity and heroically and fell, after fierce resistance, in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of the bombing of the facilities," the Cuban leader added.

Díaz-Canel also hailed the slain security forces on X, posting, "Honor and glory to the brave Cuban combatants who fell confronting terrorists in imperial uniform, who kidnapped and illegally took out of their country the president of Venezuela and his wife, whose lives our own helped to protect at the request of that sister nation."

Trump also acknowledged the deaths, telling reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One that "a lot of Cubans were killed yesterday" during what members of his administration called a "law enforcement operation."

“There was a lot of death on the other side," Trump added. "No death on our side."

Cuba's socialist government has sent thousands of teachers, doctors, technicians, and members of its security forces to support the Bolivarian Revolution launched under then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in 1999. There are believed to be between 10,000 and 20,000 Cubans living in Venezuela, according to official estimates from Havana.

Venezuela said Sunday that the preliminary death toll from the US invasion stood at 80, including at least one civilian, 80-year-old Rosa González, who was reportedly killed during a strike on a residential building near Caracas' airport.

Responding to the US killing of the 32 Cubans, Institute for Policy Studies fellow Sanho Tree said on Bluesky that the operation "should be called a massacre as well as an act of aggression."

People's Forum founder Manolo De Los Santos, who is based in Cuba, lauded the 32 Cubans who "gave their lives defending Venezuela's sovereignty against Trump's murderous attack."

"They fought to defend President Maduro from being illegally kidnapped," he added. "This is the US [government's] true face: Bombing, kidnapping, and slaughter."

Saturday wasn't the first time that Cubans died defending a socialist ally against US invasion and regime change. At least 24 Cubans—including soldiers, technicians, and construction workers—were killed along with dozens of Grenadian civilians and security forces during a 1983 US invasion ordered by then-President Ronald Reagan under a set of false pretenses to overthrow the leftist New Jewel Movement government of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. Nineteen US invaders were killed during the operation.

In addition to Venezuela, Trump—who has called himself "the most anti-war president in history" despite ordering the bombing of more countries than any of his predecessors—and members of his administration have threatened to attack or acquire land from nations and territories including Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, Greenland, Iran—which he already attacked—Mexico, Palestine, and Panama.