A senior Venezuelan official now alleges that a U.
S. special operations mission to seize President Nicols Maduro left 100 people dead and wounded both the socialist leader and his wife.
Venezuela's interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, announced the casualty figure late Wednesday, according to Fox News, which cited Reuters as reporting that Venezuelas army also released a list naming 23 of its fallen. Cuba's official newspaper for the ruling Communist Party likewise confirmed Tuesday that 32 members of its armed forces were killed during the U.S. military operation over the weekend.
Fox News Digital has requested comment from the State Department as the Biden administration faces mounting questions over the scope and human cost of the mission. Cabello further claimed that Maduro suffered a leg injury during the capture, while Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, sustained a head injury, Reuters reported.
Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez has declared a week of mourning for the military personnel killed in the fighting, underscoring the regimes effort to portray the operation as foreign aggression. An administration official told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that seven U.S. service members were injured in the operation.
Five of those American service members have already returned to duty, while two remain in recovery, highlighting the comparatively low U.S. casualty count despite the scale of the mission. "They are receiving excellent medical care and are well on their way to recovery," the official said.
"The fact that this extremely complex and grueling mission was successfully executed with so few injuries is a testament to the expertise of our joint warriors," the official added, praising the professionalism of U.S. forces. On Saturday, U.S. service members landed in Caracas, Venezuela, during a secretive mission known as Operation Absolute Resolve to capture Maduro and his wife, led by the Army's elite special operations unit Delta Force.
The 32 military and police officers that Cuba says were killed were part of a mission carried out at the request of Venezuelas government, according to a Cuban government statement that sought to cast them as martyrs of socialist solidarity. On Tuesday, Cuba released their names, ranks and ages, in a move clearly designed to rally support for the Havana and Caracas regimes.
"Victims of a new criminal act of aggression and state terrorism perpetrated against the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela by the United States, 32 Cubans lost their lives in combat actions and after fierce resistance," read a statement published by Granma, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba. While authoritarian allies in Caracas and Havana decry state terrorism, U.S. officials emphasize the precision and restraint of Operation Absolute Resolve, underscoring that the mission removed a repressive strongman while keeping American casualties to a minimum.
Login