Cuba launches mass demonstration to decry US attack on Venezuela and demand Maduro’s release

Tens of thousands of Cubans rallied Friday in Havana outside the U.S. Embassy to protest a U.S. military strike in Venezuela that killed 32 Cuban officers and to demand the release of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. The mass demonstration took place at the José Martí “Anti-Imperialist” Tribune, a government-organised rally point facing the embassy, and was part of a broader sequence of public mourning and protest.

People carried Cuban and Venezuelan flags, sang the national anthem and took part in what Cuban officials called a “combatant march,” a parade-style show of popular strength rooted in revolutionary tradition. President Miguel Díaz-Canel appeared before the crowd, denouncing what he described as U.S. aggression and asserting Cuban unity and resistance.

The protests followed solemn ceremonies throughout the country honoring the 32 Cuban officers killed on Jan. 3 during a U.S. military operation in Caracas. The Cuban government says these personnel were serving in Venezuela under security cooperation agreements and died while defending that country’s president from capture. Their remains were returned to Havana earlier in the week amid official tributes.

Cuba has framed the U.S. raid—aimed at capturing Maduro on narcotics-trafficking charges—as a criminal act of aggression, and the deaths of the Cuban officers as heroic sacrifices in defense of sovereignty and solidarity with Venezuela.

The tensions are part of a broader deterioration in U.S.–Cuba relations, with Washington tightening sanctions and cutting off Venezuelan oil and financial flows that have long supported the Cuban economy. Cuban officials warn that such measures could deepen hardships, including widespread power outages and economic strain on the island.