The capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro by US forces, along with the killing of 32 Cuban personnel assigned to protect him, has dealt a significant blow to Cuba’s long-feared intelligence services, according to security experts.
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Wary of dissent within Venezuela’s own ranks, Maduro — like his late mentor Hugo Chavez — relied heavily on Cuban security personnel drawn from the communist island’s intelligence and military institutions. However, those forces were unable to repel a swift US special operations raid, launched by helicopter after American jets neutralised Venezuelan air defences.
Officials said that of the 32 Cubans killed in the operation, 21 belonged to Cuba’s interior ministry, which oversees intelligence services, while the remaining 11 were members of the Cuban military. An additional 23 Venezuelan troops also died during the assault.
Experts told AFP that the success of the operation lay primarily in months of meticulous planning and the element of surprise. Former Venezuelan military officer Jose Gustavo Arocha, now with the US-based Center for a Secure Free Society, said Cuban intelligence had misjudged Washington’s intentions.
“Cuban intelligence convinced the Maduro regime that the United States would never attack on Venezuelan soil,” Arocha said.
Former CIA officer Fulton Armstrong, now a researcher at American University, highlighted serious intelligence failures, including the inability to detect helicopters entering Venezuelan airspace. “Even a five- or ten-minute warning would have made a massive difference,” he said.
US forces reportedly enjoyed a technological edge, deploying stealth drones to track Maduro’s movements in real time, along with advanced weapons and combat gear. Paul Hare, a former British ambassador to Cuba and Venezuela, said Cuban intelligence underestimated US access to insider cooperation within Maduro’s inner circle.
According to The New York Times, a CIA source inside the Venezuelan government disclosed Maduro’s location. Washington had previously offered a $50 million reward for information leading to his capture.
For decades, Cuba’s intelligence services — trained by the Soviet KGB — cultivated a reputation for near invincibility, famously thwarting hundreds of assassination attempts against Fidel Castro and infiltrating foreign intelligence agencies. But analysts say that history may have bred complacency.
Arocha argued that Havana failed to anticipate the aggressive posture of the Trump administration, which openly sought to reassert US dominance in Latin America. “Years of doing the same thing successfully blinded them,” he said, adding that traditional intelligence methods proved ineffective against Trump’s unconventional decision-making.
The operation, which Washington described as a law enforcement action not requiring congressional approval, marked a dramatic shift in US policy and, analysts say, a turning point for Cuban intelligence influence in the region.
