In the early hours of 3 January 2026, silently and stealthily, taking advantage of the end of the holidays, unjustifiably and illegally, an elite detachment of the armed forces of the United States of America, after illegally entering the airspace of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, penetrated the area where the residence of the constitutional president of the country, Nicolás Maduro Moros, and his wife, Dr. Cilia Flores de Maduro, is located, kidnapping both of them after a fierce battle with the president's personal security, in which 32 Cuban soldiers and officers, a group of Venezuelan military personnel and civilians were killed, and numerous others were wounded. and several American military personnel were wounded, and some may have been killed, which has been carefully concealed by the authorities of their country, who first said that there was no resistance, and then had to acknowledge that it was an intense battle lasting more than two hours, despite the surprise and overwhelming superiority in numbers and weaponry.
According to the partial, contradictory and clearly manipulated news reports from the US government and press, they used around 150 aircraft; eight helicopters carrying the detachment of attackers and firing their machine guns at everything in front of them, drones, bombings, missiles, electronic equipment to blind radars and defensive means, causing the loss of more than 100 human lives, numerous injuries and considerable destruction of military and civilian facilities, including medicine warehouses and academic centres.
President Nicolás Maduro Moro and his wife, Dr Cilia Flores de Maduro, were transferred to New York City, where they remain imprisoned in the Brooklyn Metropolitan Centre. Everything stated here is based on statements and information from the US authorities and press.
When a journalist asked President Trump at the press conference held to explain the special operation about the possibility of transferring power in Venezuela to opposition leader María Corina Machado, the president stated conclusively that she lacks the support and prestige necessary to lead the country, and did not even mention Juan A. Guaidó or Edmundo González Urrutia. and has begun negotiations with the acting president, Delcy E. Rodríguez Gómez, who held the position of Executive Vice President and was appointed as President Maduro's temporary replacement.
A few weeks after the kidnapping, the US Department of Justice had to remove from the charges that President Maduro is the head of the Cartel de los Soles and acknowledge that such a cartel does not exist.
This demonstrates that the extraordinary military deployment in the Caribbean over several months, which includes the largest aircraft carrier in the US Navy and a nuclear submarine, and in which several boats have been sunk and more than 100 unarmed and defenceless people have been killed, in violation of international law and US law, without showing any evidence of the existence of drugs, is not a fight against drug trafficking, but rather that the Trump administration is desperate to seize Venezuela's oil reserves and other natural resources, which the president claims are the property of the United States.
All of this implies a dramatic abandonment of the hypocritical policy developed by numerous US administrations over decades, which claimed that the attacks against Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and other governments in Latin America and the Caribbean were aimed at defending democracy and human rights. Now, cynically, the current president has replaced those arguments with the desire to develop the Monroe Doctrine with the Trump corollary, to seize the natural resources of the countries in the region and turn the Western Hemisphere, considered his backyard, into semi-colonies, by force if necessary, which will only be allowed to interact with whomever the US government decides.
Not everything is turning out as the US president had hoped; the Venezuelan government has neither collapsed, nor divided, nor lost popular support. The attack without legislative approval has further divided the United States, where many criticise it and it has caused a rift in the Republican Party, leading to the loss of a vote on the issue in the Senate. The American people continue to demand the publication of all documents related to the case against Jeffrey Epstein, the most famous paedophile in American history, who was a friend of many famous personalities, including President Trump.
Much remains to be known about what happened and what will happen in the future. Faced with its loss of global hegemony, the White House will increasingly behave in a manner consistent with its imperial and aggressive nature, especially in what it considers its backyard, which is the context for the threats against Colombia and Mexico.
Today, the people of Cuba welcome with sorrow but with dignity their heroes who fell in the line of duty in the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and as always, they are ready to defend their independence, sovereignty and national interests, as well as those of our brothers and sisters in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is obvious that in the face of dangers and threats, the peoples and governments of the region must unite and coordinate their positions in order to effectively confront the dangers and threats that beset us, while seeking the help and solidarity of all countries in the world, especially the BRICS.
Long live the unity of Latin America and the Caribbean!
Hasta la Victoria Siempre!
ASSOCIATION OF CUBANS RESIDING IN JAMAICA
MAJOR GENERAL ANTONIO MACEO GRAJALES