For years, the Cuban regime insisted —with an indignant tone— that there were no troops from the island in Venezuela.
It was reiterated by Miguel Díaz-Canel, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, the newspaper Granma, and the entire propaganda machinery of the State: “Cuba has no troops and does not participate in military operations in Venezuela”.
However, the official version collapsed spectacularly on January 4, 2026, when the very newspaper Granma, the organ of the Communist Party of Cuba, published a statement from the so-called "revolutionary government" confirming what had been denied for over a decade: the active presence of Cuban combatants in military operations within Venezuelan territory.
32 Cubans Lost Their Lives in Combat Actions, who were on missions representing the FAR (Revolutionary Armed Forces) and MININT (Ministry of the Interior), at the request of corresponding agencies from the South American country,” the official text acknowledged.
With that phrase, the regime buried its own narrative, which had labeled as "imperialist lies" the accusations from Washington and international organizations regarding Cuba's involvement in the security of Nicolás Maduro since at least 2019.
The note from Granma avoided mentioning the context in which the deaths occurred. There was not a single reference to the capture of Nicolás Maduro, nor to the U.S. military operation in which the fighting took place.
The location—Caracas—also is not identified, nor is it mentioned that the Cubans were part of the personal security detail of the Venezuelan leader, as confirmed by international sources and Donald Trump himself.
Instead, the regime’s press resorted to generic, propagandistic language, describing the events as a "criminal attack" and the deceased as "victims of state terrorism," in a hypocritical and pathetic attempt to reframe a military defeat as a heroic sacrifice, avoiding acknowledgment of the true nature of their armed presence in Venezuela and the political dimension of the blow suffered alongside their main ally.
From indignant denial to forced recognition
In May 2019, Díaz-Canel exclaimed on Twitter: "Enough with the lies! There are no Cuban troops in Venezuela."
That same year, Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla referred to the assertions made by then U.S. Vice President Mike Pence as “infamous,” and the newspaper Granma ironically claimed that “the only Cuban soldiers in Venezuela are the doctors”.
Even as recently as December 2025, the Cuban diplomat Johana Tablada de la Torre described Marco Rubio as "ignorant," after the U.S. Secretary of State remarked that "Maduro's internal security apparatus is completely controlled by Cubans."
Now, the statement published by Granma confirms point by point the accusations that Havana had denied for years.
The 32 deceased—according to U.S. intelligence sources, members of Maduro's personal security detail—died "in direct combat" or under the bombardments that accompanied the capture operation carried out by American forces in Caracas.
Hypocrisy and propaganda
The official rhetoric, which seeks to portray the fallen as "internationalist heroes" and "victims of state terrorism," is part of a desperate attempt to reframe a defeat as an act of heroism.
But beyond the epic propaganda, the admission of their military presence is an involuntary confession: Cuba did have deployed forces in Venezuela, something that Western intelligence agencies, the OAS, and human rights NGOs have been documenting for years.
The discourse of solidarity thus reveals itself for what it has always been: the mask of direct military intervention, justified by the economic and survival interests of Castroism, dependent on Venezuelan oil.
While Havana declares a national mourning and raises the flag at half-mast, the world watches as the regime that boasted for decades of “never lying to the people” has just signed its own historical contradiction.
The truth, buried for years under revolutionary rhetoric, has finally come to light — along with the undeniable testimony of 32 Cuban lives lost on foreign soil while carrying out orders that the regime swore for years did not exist.
Filed under:
