The remains of the 32 soldiers killed in the US attacks in Venezuela arrive in Cuba.

Havana.- The remains of the 32 Cuban soldiers who died during the US attacks in Caracas and the capture of the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, arrived this Thursday in Havana.

The bodies arrived by plane around 7 in the morning (11.00 GMT) at the José Martí International Airport of the capital, where they were awaited by the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, his predecessor, Raúl Castro, and several ministers and authorities of the country. "The homeland hurts and rises," assured the Minister of the Interior, Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, at the airport reception, who assured that the deceased "fought to the last bullet" for "the most just cause."

"Cuba does not give in, even if to defend dignity it has to pay a high price," the minister affirmed in a speech on the airport runway itself, in front of the military vehicles carrying the mortal remains covered by Cuban flags.

The tour of the streets of Havana is scheduled to begin next. The route of the coffins will end at the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Minfar), where they will be exposed to the public.

This is the first of two days in which the island's Executive will fully focus on its complaints against Washington's operation in Venezuela and the capture of Maduro on the 3rd, an action that it has described on different occasions as a "kidnapping".

On Friday, the Government will lead a demonstration at the Anti-Imperialist Tribune, a square located in front of the United States embassy in Havana, which the Cuban government uses as a venue for acts of reaffirmation and denunciation. After concentrating in the stands, a "march of the combative people" will begin, recovering an initiative devised in the 80s by then-president Fidel Castro and which has been used on rare occasions. The last march of the fighting people took place in December 2024, in response to the victory of the American president, Donald Trump. It was the first in decades.

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The island's government, a political ally of Chavismo, has hardened its discourse against Washington following the attacks in Venezuela. Especially after confirming the death of 32 Cuban "combatants" during the operation. Many analysts had pointed out that Maduro's first personal security circle was mainly made up of Cubans, something that Caracas and Havana had never confirmed. A 2022 report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela (FFMV) of the UN concluded, after analyzing "confidential written agreements" between Caracas and Havana, that this collaboration dates back to 2006, when Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro were presidents, respectively. The U.S. President, Donald Trump, warned Cuba on Sunday that it will no longer receive more money or oil from Venezuela, pointing out that the island has been "living for years" thanks to Venezuelan money and crude oil in exchange for "security services" for the "last two dictators (Hugo Chavez and Nicolás Maduro)".