CARACAS: US forces killed 55 Venezuelan and Cuban military personnel during their stunning raid to capture Nicolas Maduro, tolls published by Caracas and Havana showed Tuesday.
In the first confirmation of its losses, Venezuela’s military said 23 of its service members died in Saturday’s attacks by the United States, which led to the ouster of Maduro as the country’s leader.
Caracas has yet to give an official figure for civilian casualties.
Cuba, which had already announced that 32 members of its armed forces and interior ministry security personnel assigned to duties in Caracas were killed in the raids, also listed its dead.
They ranged in age from 26 to 67 and included two colonels and one lieutenant colonel.
Many of the dead Cubans are believed to have been members of Maduro’s security detail, which was largely wiped out in the attacks, according to Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez.
The assault began with bombing raids on military targets and culminated with US special forces swooping in by helicopter to seize Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from a compound.
Both were later taken to New York, where they appeared in court on Monday and pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges.
Hours after their court appearance, Maduro’s former deputy Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as interim president.
US President Donald Trump said he is willing to work with her, as long as she submits to his demands on providing US companies access to Venezuela’s massive oil reserves.
Rodriguez faces a delicate balancing act in trying to respond to those demands while keeping Maduro loyalists on her side.
A retired general who held high-ranking positions in the military predicted that Rodriguez would throw open Venezuela to US oil and mining companies and perhaps resume diplomatic ties, broken off by Maduro in 2019.
He also believed she would seek to appease criticism of Venezuela’s dire rights record by releasing political prisoners.
