Cuba's Regime Exposed: Mourning "Fighters" They Claimed Didn't Exist

For years, the Cuban regime adamantly — and indignantly — insisted that there were no Cuban troops stationed in Venezuela. This denial was echoed by Miguel Díaz-Canel, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, the Granma newspaper, and the entire state propaganda machine, repeatedly stating, "Cuba has no troops and does not participate in military operations in Venezuela."

However, this official narrative shattered dramatically on January 4, 2026, when Granma, the official publication of the Cuban Communist Party, released a statement from the so-called "revolutionary government" confirming what had been denied for over a decade: the active presence of Cuban fighters in military operations on Venezuelan soil.

The official text admitted, "Thirty-two Cubans lost their lives in combat actions while fulfilling missions on behalf of the FAR (Revolutionary Armed Forces) and the MININT (Ministry of the Interior), at the request of their South American counterparts."

With this admission, the regime buried its own narrative, one that had branded U.S. and international reports as "imperialist lies" since at least 2019, regarding Cuban involvement in Nicolás Maduro's security.

Revelations and Omissions

The statement in Granma carefully omitted details about the circumstances surrounding these deaths. There was no mention of Nicolás Maduro's capture or the U.S. military operation during which the combat occurred. It also neglected to specify the location — Caracas — or acknowledge that the Cubans were part of Maduro's personal security team, as confirmed by international sources and Donald Trump himself.

Instead, the regime's media used broad, propagandistic language, depicting the event as a "criminal attack" and the dead as "victims of state terrorism," in a hypocritical and pathetic attempt to recast a military defeat as a heroic sacrifice, sidestepping acknowledgment of their true armed presence in Venezuela and the political blow suffered alongside their main ally.

From Denial to Forced Admission

Back in May 2019, Díaz-Canel took to Twitter, declaring, "Enough lies! There are no Cuban troops in Venezuela." That same year, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla labeled then-U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's claims as "infamous," while Granma sarcastically noted that "the only Cuban soldiers in Venezuela are doctors."

As recently as December 2025, Cuban diplomat Johana Tablada de la Torre called Marco Rubio "ignorant" after the U.S. Secretary of State claimed that "Maduro's internal security apparatus is completely controlled by Cubans." Now, Granma's statement confirms, point by point, the allegations that Havana denied for years.

The 32 deceased — according to U.S. intelligence, members of Maduro's personal escort — died "in direct combat" or under the bombings accompanying the U.S. forces' capture operation in Caracas.

Unmasking Hypocrisy and Propaganda

The official rhetoric, which attempts to portray the fallen as "internationalist heroes" and "victims of state terrorism," is part of a desperate effort to reframe a defeat as an act of heroism. But beyond the propagandistic epic, the admission of their military presence is an involuntary confession: Cuba indeed had forces deployed in Venezuela, something Western intelligence agencies, the OAS, and human rights NGOs have documented for years.

The discourse of solidarity is thus revealed for what it always was: a facade for direct military interventionism, justified by the economic and survival interests of castrismo, dependent on Venezuelan oil.

As Havana declares national mourning and flies the flag at half-mast, the world watches as the regime that boasted for decades of "never lying to the people" has just signed its own historical contradiction. The truth, buried for years under revolutionary rhetoric, has finally emerged — along with the undeniable testament of 32 Cuban lives lost on foreign soil, obeying orders the regime swore for years did not exist.