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First photo of Nicolás Maduro released by Donald Trump after his capture by American forces
The capture of Nicolás Maduro and the death of 32 Cubans during the attack by US forces on Venezuela represent a serious blow to Cuba’s intelligence services, recognized for their effectiveness. The key to the meticulously prepared military operation was the “surprise factor”.
Two days after the US attack on a military complex in Caracas, Havana confirmed the death, in that operation, of 32 elements of your forces security guards, some of whom are probably responsible for protecting Nicolás Maduro. Caracas, for its part, mourned the deaths of 23 soldiers.
Among the Cubans, 21 belonged to the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees intelligence services, and 11 were from the Armed Forces Revolutionaries. No information was released about possible injuries.
Experts consulted by AFP believe that the operation key military, for months by Washington and kept in absolute secrecy, was “the surprise factor“.
“A intelligence Cuban convinced the Maduro regime and its security agencies that the US would never attack Venezuelan territory“, explains to AFP José Gustavo Arochaformer Venezuelan Army officer and specialist in a think tank American specialized in defense issues.
In the same way, Fulton Armstrongformer North American information officer and researcher for Latin America at the American University of Washington, highlights “the failure to anticipate the attack and in detecting the entry of North American helicopters into Venezuelan territory.”
“Even a 5 or 10 minute warning It would have made a big difference for the guards and for Maduro”, considers the former CIA agent. At the same time, the US forces had a “incredible information in real time“, thanks to , for monitoring Maduro’s movements.
Added to these factors are “especially sophisticated combat equipment and probably the shoot to kill order“, salienta Armstrong.
Another weakness, according to Paul Hareformer British ambassador to Cuba and Venezuela, is that Cuban intelligence services underestimated “United States access to internal cooperation in Venezuela“.
According to The New York Times, which cites sources close to the military operation, a “CIA source within the Venezuelan government” monitored the location of the Venezuelan leader and facilitated the start of the operation.
For a long time, the Cuban secret services, trained during the KGB era Soviet, enjoyed a reputation for invincibility.
In addition to having frustrated about 600 assassination attempts of the Cuban president Fidel Castroare known for their ability to infiltrate agents or recruit senior foreign officials, especially Americans.
The most recent case to come to light is that of Victor Manuel Rochaformer US ambassador sentenced in 2024 to 15 years in prison after having worked for more than 40 years as covert agent of the Cuban state.
The Cubansdid not adequately interpret the Trump administrationand then came your catastrophic failure“, maintains Arocha. The new National Security Strategy of the United States, he adds, makes clear the objective of North American supremacy in Latin America.
Washington has repeatedly denounced the Cuban penetration in the Venezuelan security apparatus, especially in civil information servicesmilitary counterintelligence and the national identification system.
Caracas and Havana systematically denied these accusationsstating that the supply of oil to the island occurred in exchange for sending doctors and humanitarian personnel.
“So many years in power in Venezuela doing the same thing successfully prevented Cuban services from notice the changes“, says the former Venezuelan soldier.
“Failure originates from arrival of a new actorDonald Trump, who changed the dynamics of decision-making and did not use conventional channels. All Cuban intelligence capabilities were blocked for the first time in the region, not due to technological failuresbut because their traditional methods have become irrelevant in this new style decision-making process”, concludes Arocha.
