At least 24 Venezuelan security officers killed in Maduro capture operation

The death toll for Venezuelan security officials comes after Cuba’s government announced that 32 Cuban military and police officers working in Venezuela had died.

At least 24 Venezuelan security officers were killed in the dead-of-night U.S. military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro and spirit him to the United States to face federal drug charges, officials said Tuesday.

Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab said “dozens” of officials and civilians were killed and that prosecutors would investigate the deaths in what he described as a “war crime.” He didn’t specify if the estimate was specifically referring to Venezuelans.

The death toll for Venezuelan security officials comes after Cuba’s government on Sunday announced that 32 Cuban military and police officers working in Venezuela had died in the operation, prompting two days of mourning on the Caribbean island.

A video tribute to the slain Venezuelan security officials posted to the military’s Instagram features faces of many of those killed over black-and-white videos of soldiers, American aircraft flying over Caracas and armoured vehicles destroyed by the blasts.

“Their spilled blood does not cry out for vengeance, but for justice and strength,” the military wrote in an Instagram post. “It reaffirms our unwavering oath not to rest until we rescue our legitimate President, completely dismantle the terrorist groups operating from abroad, and ensure that events such as these never again sully our sovereign soil.”

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Tuesday pushed back against Democratic criticism of this weekend’s military operation, noting that his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden had also called for the arrest of the Venezuelan leader on drug trafficking charges.

Trump in remarks before a House Republican retreat in Washington grumbled that Democrats were not giving him credit for a successful military operation that led to the ouster of Maduro, even though there was bipartisan agreement that Maduro was not the rightful president of Venezuela.

In 2020, Maduro was indicted in the United States, accused in a decades-long narco-terrorism and international cocaine trafficking conspiracy.