Cuba’s Intelligence and Military Influence in Venezuela Exposed After Maduro Raid

Cuba has confirmed that 32 of its citizens, described as members of the island’s armed forces and intelligence services, were killed during the U.S. military operation that seized Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. The Cuban government has declared two days of national mourning in their honor.

While Havana did not specify where these personnel were stationed during the raid, their deaths have intensified scrutiny of Cuba’s long-documented covert involvement in Venezuela’s military and intelligence structures.

“Experts usually link Cuba as the most important intelligence provider of Venezuela,” explained Jorge Jraissati, a Venezuelan political analyst. “This includes issues like running elections, building diplomatic leverage with other countries and keeping the security forces in check, among others.”

Jraissati noted that any political transition in Venezuela would require cooperation between the U.S. government and Venezuelan people to reduce Cuban influence over Venezuela’s state apparatus and broader society.

The relationship between Cuba and Venezuela’s security forces was extensively documented in a 2019 Reuters investigation, which uncovered two confidential agreements signed in 2008. These agreements granted Cuba sweeping access to Venezuela’s armed forces and intelligence services, authorizing Cuban officials to train Venezuelan troops, restructure intelligence agencies, and help build an internal surveillance system specifically focused on monitoring Venezuela’s own military.

These arrangements played a pivotal role in transforming Venezuela’s General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) into a force designed to detect dissent, instill fear within military ranks, and ensure loyalty to the government.

The findings of the Reuters investigation were later corroborated by the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela. The UN mission reviewed a 2008 memorandum of understanding between the two countries that provided for Cuban advisory oversight in restructuring Venezuelan military intelligence. This included creating new agencies, training counterintelligence officers, and providing assistance with surveillance and infiltration techniques.

Former Venezuelan officials have reported that Cuban advisers were embedded across some of the country’s most sensitive institutions. These included the civilian intelligence service SEBIN, DGCIM, the defense ministry, ports and airports, and Venezuela’s national identification system.

Human rights organizations and international investigators have determined that these structures were central to the government’s response to mass protests in 2014 and 2017. During these demonstrations, Venezuelan security forces carried out widespread arrests and deadly crackdowns on protesters.

The UN fact-finding mission documented patterns of extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detention and torture. The mission reported that Cuban advisers helped train Venezuelan personnel in methods used to track, interrogate and repress political opponents.

President Donald Trump has vowed that the U.S. will “run” Venezuela until a “safe” transition of power can be achieved. Maduro has been transported to New York following his capture to face drug conspiracy charges.

The admission from Cuba that its military and intelligence personnel were killed during a U.S. operation inside Venezuela has transformed years of documentation into an immediate geopolitical issue. It provides concrete evidence of the deep operational integration between the two countries’ security services, which had previously been documented primarily through investigations and testimony from former officials.

Experts suggest this development could complicate regional relations as the U.S. works to establish stability in Venezuela following Maduro’s capture. The extensive Cuban presence in Venezuela’s security apparatus means that dismantling these networks will be a crucial challenge in any transition process.

The longstanding alliance between Cuba and Venezuela has been based on a mutually beneficial relationship: Venezuela has provided Cuba with oil and economic support, while Cuba has supplied intelligence expertise and personnel to help maintain the Maduro regime’s grip on power.