Cuba denounces abduction of Nicolas Maduro by US forces

For months as the US military prepared to strike Venezuela, many Cubans have asked me a simple, if disconcerting, question: "Are we next?"  

Following the devastating attacks on Venezuelan military bases and surgical apprehension of leader Nicolás Maduro by US Special Forces, Cuba seems very much in the Trump administration's sights, reports CNN. 

Maduro's capture is a seismic reversal of fortune for Cuba's communist-run government, which for decades has relied on massive aid packages from its oil-rich South American ally for the island's very survival. 

At a protest on Saturday in front of the US Embassy in Havana, a defiant Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel promised not to let the Cuba-Venezuela alliance go down without a fight. 

"For Venezuela, of course for Cuba, we are willing to give even our own life, but at a heavy cost," Diaz-Canel proclaimed. 

But if anything, the Cubans I have spoken with since the strikes seemed shocked by how easy it seemed for the US military to snatch Maduro without any loss of US personnel. 

"For decades, first (former Venezuelan leader Hugo) Chavez and then Maduro warned of a US intervention," said one Havana resident, who did not want their name used. "But when it finally happened, no one was ready for it. The Venezuelans had billions of dollars to equip their military. We don't." 

The attack on Venezuela appears to have already come at a heavy cost for Cuba, as President Donald Trump told the New York Post on Saturday, "You know, many Cubans lost their lives last night. … They were protecting Maduro. That was not a good move." 

The Cuban government, in a post on Facebook on Sunday, said 32 of its citizens were killed during the operation "in combat actions, performing missions on behalf of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, at the request of counterparts of the South American country." The government declared two days of mourning.  It would appear to be the first time in decades the former Cold War-era foes engaged in combat.