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US TROOPS KILLED 55 Venezuelan and Cuban military personnel during their raid to capture Nicolas Maduro, according to tolls published by Caracas and Havana.
In the first confirmation of its losses, Venezuela’s military said 23 of its service members died in the attacks by the US, which kidnapped the country’s authoritarian leader and his wife. 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 Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez.
In a speech at a Republican event today, US President Donald Trump acknowledged that “many, many” people were killed during the operation.
“A lot of people were killed. Unfortunately, I say that. Soldiers, mostly Cubans, but many, many killed. They knew we were coming,” he said, describing the operation as “tactically brilliant”.
The assault began with bombing raids on military targets and culminated with US special forces swooping in by helicopter to kidnap Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from their home. He pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges in a New York court yesterday.
Hours after their court appearance, Maduro’s former deputy Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as interim president.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum today called on the US to ensure Maduro receives a “fair trial.”
A meeting of the United Nations Security Council yesterday saw the US heavily criticised by member states over the operation, with many deeming it a breach of international law and a violation of the UN charter.
China’s representative Sun Lei described it as the “unilateral, illegal and bullying acts of the US”, while secretary general Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned that rules of international law have not been respected”.
Today, Tánaiste Simon Harris refused to be drawn on whether Trump’s military actions in Venezuela were a breach of international law.
Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, he told reporters that the situation was “complex when it comes to international law” and that Maduro was “not a legitimate head of state”.
Describing the ousted Venezuelan leader as a “brutal dictator with no democratic legitimacy”, Harris said Trump’s actions “certainly present challenges” that will be considered by the United Nations.
The Fine Gael leader also took a swipe at Sinn Féin, noting that “some political parties in Ireland” attended Maduro’s inauguration in 2019.
Asked if he has concerns that Trump’s actions set a dangerous precedent and that the US leader may annex Greenland if he now wishes, Harris noted that Maduro was a “brutal dictator who wasn’t elected” and that many Venezuelans reacted with “delight” to his removal from office.
He said in relation to Greenland the situation was “simply not comparable”.
“I stand firm with Denmark and the European Union in relation to that… Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, Denmark is part of the European Union and Denmark and Greenland are democracies,” Harris said.
Rodriguez has sought to project unity with the hardliners in Maduro’s administration, who control the security forces and powerful paramilitaries that have patrolled the streets in the days since the deposed leader’s capture.
In a sign that a repressive security apparatus remains in place, 14 journalists and media workers, most of them representing foreign media, were detained while covering the presidential inauguration at parliament on Monday, a journalists’ union said.
Two other journalists for foreign media were detained near the Colombian border. All were later released
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has been given no role by Washington in the post-Maduro transition, said in a Fox News interview that Rodriguez was not to be trusted.
“Delcy Rodriguez as you know is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narcotrafficking,” she said.
“She’s the main ally and liaison with Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual that could be trusted by international investors.”
Trump has so far backed Rodriguez, but warned she would pay “a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro” if she does not comply with Washington’s agenda.
So far she has made no changes to the cabinet, with Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Padrino Lopez, widely seen as wielding the real power in Venezuela, retaining their posts.
Machado told Fox News that “in free and fair elections, we will win by over 90 percent of the votes, I have no doubt about it.”
She vowed to “turn Venezuela into the energy hub of the Americas”; “dismantle all these criminal structures” and “bring millions of Venezuelans that have been forced to flee our country back home.”
She also offered to give her Nobel prize – an award Trump has long publicly coveted – to the US president.
Machado said, however, that she had not spoken to Trump since 10 October.
With reporting from AFP
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