HAVANA (AP) — Trumpets and drums sounded solemnly at Havana’s airport Thursday as white-gloved Cuban soldiers disembarked from a plane carrying urns carrying the remains of the 32 Cuban officers killed in a stunning U.S. attack on Venezuela.
Nearby, thousands of Cubans lined one of Havana’s most iconic streets to await the bodies as the island remained under threat from US President Donald Trump’s administration.
The soldiers’ shoes clattered as they marched stiff-legged into the headquarters of the Ministry of the Armed Forces and placed the urns on a long table next to pictures of the slain. Tens of thousands of people paid their respects, saluting ballot boxes or holding their hands over their hearts, many of them drenched from standing outside in the pouring rain.
Thursday’s mass funeral was just one of a few the Cuban government has organized in the past half century.
The soldiers were part of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s security detail during the Jan. 3 raid on his residence to capture the former leader and bring him to the U.S. to face drug-trafficking charges.
State television also showed images of what it said were more than a dozen fighters wounded in the raid, accompanied by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, after they arrived from Venezuela late on Wednesday. A man identified in state media as Colonel Pedro Yadín Domínguez attended Thursday’s ceremony in a wheelchair.
He said it was a “disproportionate attack” that killed 11 colleagues around him as they slept. Yadín said he pledged to do “whatever is necessary to defend this people and remain united in the face of threats from the United States.”
Tensions between Cuba and the US have risen, with Trump recently calling for the Caribbean country to strike a deal with him before it’s “too late”. He did not explain what kind of business.
Trump also said that Cuba will no longer live off Venezuela’s money and oil. Experts warn that the sudden cessation of oil shipments could be catastrophic for Cuba, which is already experiencing serious power outages and a collapsing power grid.
“This will always unite us”
Officials unfurled a massive flag at Havana’s airport as President Miguel Díaz-Canel, dressed in military fatigues, stood silently next to former President Raúl Castro, with what appeared to be relatives of the slain looking on nearby.
Cuban Interior Minister Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas called the slain soldiers “heroes” of an anti-imperialist struggle spanning both Cuba and Venezuela. In an apparent reference to the US, he said the “enemy” was talking about “high precision, troop, elite, supremacy operations.
“We, on the other hand, are talking about faces, about families that have lost a father, a son, a husband, a brother,” Álvarez said.
The events demonstrate that “imperialism can have more sophisticated weapons; it can have immense material wealth; it can buy the minds of the wavering; but there is one thing it will never be able to buy: the dignity of the Cuban people,” he said.
Carmen Gómez, a 58-year-old industrial designer, was among the thousands of Cubans who lined a street where motorcycles and military vehicles mowed down the remains of the slain.
“They are people willing to defend their principles and values, and we have to pay tribute to them,” Gómez said. “It is because of the sense of patriotism that Cubans have that will always unite us.”
“People are angry and hurt”
The 32 soldiers were aged between 26 and 60 and were part of the protection agreements between the two countries.
Cuban officials said they expected a massive demonstration outside the US Embassy on Friday to protest the deaths.
“People are angry and hurt … many believe the dead are the martyrs” of a historic battle against the United States, analyst and former diplomat Carlos Alzugaray told The Associated Press.
The first mass burial in decades
In October 1976, then-President Fidel Castro led a massive demonstration to say goodbye to the 73 people killed in the bombing of a civilian airliner funded by US anti-revolutionary leaders. Most of the victims were Cuban athletes.
In December 1989, officials held a ceremony to honor the more than 2,000 Cuban combatants who died in Angola during Cuba’s participation in a war that defeated the South African army.
In October 1997, memorial services were held after the arrival of the remains of guerrilla commander Ernesto “Che” Guevara and six of his comrades who died in 1967.
The latest mass funeral is essential to honor those killed, said José Luis Piñeiro, a 60-year-old doctor who lived in Venezuela for four years.
“I don’t think Trump is crazy enough to come and enter a country like this, ours, and if he does, he’ll have to take an aspirin or a painkiller to avoid the headache he’s going to have,” Piñeiro said. “These were 32 heroes who fought him. Can you imagine an entire nation? He will lose.”
Cuba furious at US aid for hurricane recovery
The remains arrived a day after the US announced an additional $3 million in aid to help the island recover from catastrophic Hurricane Melissa. The first flight took off on Wednesday, and a second flight was scheduled for Friday. A merchant ship will also deliver food and other supplies.
Cuba said on Wednesday that any contribution would be channeled through the government.
But US State Department foreign assistance official Jeremy Lewin said Thursday that the US is working with the Cuban Catholic Church to distribute aid as part of Washington’s efforts to provide assistance directly to the Cuban people.
“There is nothing political about canned tuna and rice and beans and pasta,” he said, warning that the Cuban government should not intervene or divert supplies. “We will pursue and hold them accountable.”
Lewin said the Cuban government has a choice to: “Give up or better yet give to the people.” Lewin added that “if there was no regime,” the U.S. would provide “billions and billions of dollars” in aid as well as investment and development: “That’s what’s on the other side of the regime for the Cuban people.”
Rodríguez, the Cuban foreign minister, said the US government was “exploiting what appears to be a humanitarian gesture for opportunistic and politically manipulative purposes.”
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Contributed by Coto from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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