Venezuela’s Defence Ministry says 83 people in total killed in US attack to abduct President Nicolas Maduro.
Nine women soldiers were among 47 Venezuelan troops killed earlier this month when the United States attacked the capital Caracas and abducted President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said.
Revising the number of Venezuelan forces killed upward from an initial report of 23, the defence minister said on Friday that a total of 83 people were killed in the January 3 raid by US forces.
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Those killed included 32 Cuban soldiers, some of whom had been assigned to President Maduro’s personal protection team.
“What have the men and women of our Bolivarian National Armed Forces done in the face of military aggression? They have given their lives, they have honoured history and the homeland,” Padrino said at a ceremony to honour those killed in the attack.
The minister also said that a site will be located for the construction of a memorial to those killed.
Cuba on Thursday received the remains of the 32 soldiers it said were killed in combat in the early hours of January 3.
More than 112 people were reported injured in the US raid that began with the bombing of military targets and culminated with US troops landing in helicopters and abducting Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their residence in Caracas.
The full extent of civilian casualties from the US raid has yet to be determined by authorities in Venezuela. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said earlier this week that experts needed to use DNA testing to identify victims, as some were blown to “little pieces” in the US attack.
Interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who has decreed seven days of mourning for those killed in the US attack, met on Thursday in Caracas with CIA director John Ratcliffe, whose agency played a key role in Maduro’s abduction, The Associated Press news agency reports.
A US official told the AP that Ratcliffe discussed potential economic collaboration between the two countries and warned that Venezuela can never again allow the presence of US adversaries, including drug traffickers, on its soil.
‘Emperor of the White House’
Tens of thousands of Cubans demonstrated outside the US embassy in Havana on Friday to decry the killing of the 32 Cuban soldiers in the Venezuela attack.
Crowds poured into the open-air Jose Marti Anti-Imperialist plaza across from the US diplomatic compound in a rally organised by the Cuban government.
The US “is governed by a president who considers himself an emperor”, said Rene Gonzalez, 64, one of the protesters.
“We must show him that ideas are worth more than weapons,” he said.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel shook hands with protesters before giving a speech in which he said Washington had “opened the door to an era of barbarism, plunder and neo-fascism”.
“No one here surrenders,” Diaz-Canel said. “The current emperor of the White House and his infamous secretary of state haven’t stopped threatening me.”
“Cuba does not have to make any political concessions, and that will never be on the table for negotiations aimed at reaching an understanding between Cuba and the United States,” he said.
“It is important that they understand this. We will always be open to dialogue and improving relations between our two countries, but only on equal terms and based on mutual respect,” he added.
US President Donald Trump recently demanded that Cuba make a deal with him before it is “too late”. He did not explain what kind of deal or what would occur beyond his deadline.
Trump also said that Cuba will no longer live off Venezuela’s oil reserves, which the US president has repeatedly said now belong to the US.
Havana is highly dependent on Venezuelan oil, and experts warn that if supplies run dry, it could have catastrophic consequences for cash-strapped Cuba, which is already struggling with severe power blackouts and years of US-imposed sanctions.
Friday’s demonstration in Havana was organised a day after tens of thousands of Cubans gathered at the headquarters of the Ministry of the Armed Forces in the capital to pay their respects to the 32 slain officers as their bodies arrived from Venezuela.
