On the evening of January 8, an official ceremony was held in tribute to the Cuban and Venezuelan fighters who fell in defense of Venezuela. The solemn medal ceremony was presided over by interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, and took place at the Eclectic Monument of the Bolivarian National Guard Military Academy.

During the ceremony, alongside the family members of the fighters decorated as heroes of the nation, honors were paid to those who died defending Venezuela during the military aggression by the United States, carried out in the early hours on Saturday, January 3. President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores, were kidnapped by the Trump administration during the operation.

According to Venezuela’s Minister of Interior and Justice, Diosdado Cabello, it has been confirmed that during the attacks, “at least 100 people were killed” and a “similar number” were wounded. The victims include members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, civilians, and other security agents.

Among the dead were also 32 Cubans who were carrying out security duties in the South American country as part of President Nicolás Maduro’s personal guard, in addition to performing other technical functions.

As part of the tributes, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez led a delegation that traveled to Caracas to participate in the ceremony.

“We commit to fighting together and winning”

“We came to Caracas to pay an emotional tribute to the Venezuelan fighters who fell in combat, in defense of the Bolivarian and Chavista Revolution and the sacred Venezuelan homeland,” were the words with which he began his speech.

He stated that it was an “emotional tribute to the Cuban fighters who, in an unequal manner, faced the imperialist enemy that was desecrating the sovereignty of the Venezuelan homeland and were protecting the constitutional president Nicolás Maduro Moros.”

The clashes against the US attack lasted about two hours. During the surprise attack, the United States deployed all components of its war arsenal: intelligence services and even special troops, in a coordinated manner.

Trained for months on a model that replicated the layout of the location, the attack was carried out with the American military bombing seven different points in the country, across three states – Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira – along with the Federal District, while cyber operations were conducted to disable power supply at strategic points and the country’s anti-aircraft defenses were attacked by American aircraft.

Tribute Ceremony to Venezuelan and Cuban Martyrs. Photo: Venezuelan Ministry of Communications

“To the brave Venezuelan people, we express Cuba’s deepest solidarity,” declared the Cuban foreign minister, adding that “following the eternal memory of Chávez and Fidel, in the year of his centenary, we commit to fighting together and winning.”

Through a message on social media, the Cuban foreign minister added that “the blood of both peoples has merged on Venezuelan soil.”

“I saw in the faces of the mothers, I saw the face of a woman, my mother”

The main speech was delivered by the acting president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez. After greeting each of the family members of the fighters, she stated: “The men and women who fell in combat are heroes and heroines of Simón Bolívar’s homeland, and the brothers from Cuba, sons of Martí and Fidel, are also heroes and heroines of this homeland, because, as one people, they fought in defense against illegal and illegitimate aggression.”

The acting president assured that both nations are “united in love” and evoked the figure of José Martí by saying that the concept of homeland defended by both peoples is that “the homeland is humanity.”

Delcy Rodríguez also announced the creation of a commission for the comprehensive support of the families of the heroes who fell in defense of the national territory. In a message addressed to the families of the victims, she said she shared their pain.

“I saw in the faces of the mothers, I saw the face of a woman, my mother, when they killed my father. In the faces of the wives of the fallen, I saw the face of my mother, who also lost a husband. In the faces of the girls and boys who lost their parents, I saw the face of Jorge and mine, when, as children, we also lost our father, vilely murdered.”

Delcy Rodríguez comforts a family member of victims of the US attacks against Venezuela during the Tribute Ceremony to Venezuelan and Cuban Martyrs. Photo: Venezuelan Ministry of Communications

Delcy Rodríguez and her brother Jorge Rodríguez – current president of Venezuela’s National Assembly – are the children of the historic Venezuelan leftist leader Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, one of the founders of the Socialist League – an organization in which Nicolás Maduro was active when he was a young union leader.

In 1976, when Delcy was seven years old, Jorge Antonio Rodríguez was kidnapped and tortured to death by the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP), at the time strongly linked to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Israeli Mossad.

“I tell you that these wounds will accompany us forever,” shared the acting president in an emotional moment, assuring that “we know that the loved ones we lost died for a just cause, for a noble cause, and that just cause, that noble cause, is called Venezuela.”

Making an appeal to fight for the future of the country’s sovereignty, Delcy Rodríguez concluded with a call to build a future so that next generations may have one:

“To say to our future generations: here it is, we deliver into your hands our beloved homeland, our beloved Venezuela, with stories of heroes and heroines. We are not leaving a history of traitors and cowards; we are delivering the history of a country that does not submit.”

First published in Portuguese at Brasil de Fato.

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