*Exclusive: Cuban security forces exit Venezuela as US pressure mounts*
By Sarah Kinosian <https://www.reuters.com/authors/sarah-kinosian/>,
Julia Symmes Cobb
<https://www.reuters.com/authors/julia-symmes-cobb/>and Laura
Gottesdiener <https://www.reuters.com/authors/laura-gottesdiener/>,
February 21, 2026,
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/cuban-security-forces-exit-venezuela-us-pressure-mounts-2026-02-21/
CARACAS, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Cuban security advisers and doctors have
been leaving Venezuela as Interim President Delcy Rodriguez's government
faces intense pressure from Washington to unwind Latin America’s most
consequential leftist alliance, according to 11 sources familiar with
the matter.
Venezuela’s Interim President Delcy Rodriguez has entrusted her
protection to Venezuelan bodyguards, according to four of the sources,
unlike deposed president Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor, the late
president Hugo Chavez, who both relied on elite Cuban forces.
The Reuters Inside Track newsletter is your essential guide to the
biggest events in global sport. Sign up here.
<https://www.reuters.com/newsletters/inside-track/?location=article-paragraph&redirectUrl=%2Fworld%2Famericas%2Fcuban-security-forces-exit-venezuela-us-pressure-mounts-2026-02-21%2F>
Thirty-two Cubans were killed in the U.S. military attack that captured
Maduro on January 3, according to the Cuban government. These soldiers
and bodyguards were part of a deep security agreement between Caracas
and Havana that began in the late 2000s in which Cuban intelligence
agents embedded throughout the military and Venezuela’s formidable DGCIM
counterintelligence unit
<https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/venezuela-cuba-military/>,
which was fundamental to weeding out domestic opposition.
“The Cuban influence was absolutely essential” to the survival of the
Chavista government, said Alejandro Velasco, an associate professor of
history at New York University and an expert on Venezuela.
Inside DGCIM, some Cuban advisers have been removed from their posts,
according to a former Venezuela intelligence official. Some of the Cuban
medical workers and security advisers have travelled from Venezuela to
Cuba on flights in recent weeks, two of the sources said.
One source close to Venezuela’s ruling party said the Cubans were
departing on the orders of Rodriguez due to U.S. pressure. The other
sources were not clear on whether the Cubans were being forced to leave
by the new Venezuelan leadership, departing of their own accord, or
being summoned home by Havana.
The decision to sideline Cubans from the presidential guard and the
counterintelligence unit has not been previously reported.
*TRUMP WANTS END TO VENEZUELA-CUBA TIES*
Prior to the operation to remove Maduro, thousands of Cuban doctors,
nurses and sports coaches worked in Venezuela as part of welfare
programs begun under Chavez. In exchange, Venezuela provided Cuba with a
source of much-needed oil.
Following the U.S. attack, U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to end the
security relationship between Venezuela and Cuba. “Cuba lived, for many
years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba
provided ‘Security Services’ for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT
NOT ANYMORE!,” he wrote on Truth Social on January 11.
In response to questions about U.S. pressure on Venezuela to cut ties
with Cuba, a White House official said the U.S. has “a very good
relationship with the leaders of Venezuela” and that it believes that
Rodriguez’s “own self-interest aligns with advancing our key objectives.”
Severing Venezuela’s relationship with Cuba is part of Washington’s
broader strategy of toppling Havana’s communist-run government. Since
mid-December, Washington has blockaded Venezuela from shipping oil to
Cuba, economically strangling the island.
The U.S. government is “talking to Cuba, whose leaders should make a
deal,” the official said.
The Cuban government has said it is open to dialogue on equal terms,
while condemning the oil blockade and vowing to resist U.S. intervention.
Neither the Cuban nor Venezuelan governments responded to requests for
comment. The two countries have publicly affirmed their continued
relationship.
Rodriguez, the daughter of a former Marxist guerrilla, has been a
longtime ally of Maduro and member of Venezuela’s ruling Socialist
Party. She’s also personally close to the Cuban government, according to
ten U.S. and Venezuelan sources.
On January 8, Rodriguez appeared alongside Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno
Rodriguez at a flower-laden memorial service in Caracas for the victims
of the U.S. attack.
“To the brave Venezuelan people, we express Cuba’s deepest solidarity,”
Bruno Rodriguez said at the event, before uttering the rallying cry of
one of the leaders of the Cuban revolution, Ernesto “Che” Guevara:
“Hasta la victoria siempre.”
Later in January, Delcy Rodriguez also spoke by phone with Cuban
President Miguel Diaz-Canel, saying afterwards that the two countries
remained “united.” Diaz-Canel, after the same call, said Cuba was
committed to “continue strengthening the historic relations of
brotherhood and cooperation.”
Regarding the relationship between the two countries, the White House
official said: “President Trump understands that they have to make
certain statements for domestic political reasons.”
*FLIGHTS BACK TO CUBA*
A source familiar with the Cuban government’s thinking said that some
military personnel injured in the U.S. attack have returned to Cuba, but
that others have remained active in Venezuela. The source also said many
Cuban doctors continue to provide care in Venezuela.
Cuba’s state-run media in early January said a suspension of commercial
flights and closure of Venezuelan airspace had caused a backlog that
prevented Cuba from bringing home doctors from vacations or for ending
their missions in Venezuela. Those flights resumed the week after the
January 3 U.S. attack, those reports said.
A U.S. source familiar with the matter said that while the Cuban
presence is diminishing, some undercover intelligence agents are likely
to remain in the country to see how the political situation pans out.
Frank Mora, who served as U.S. ambassador to the Organization of
American States under the Biden administration, said “Rodriguez is
treading very carefully.”
“She wants to keep the Cubans at a distance until this situation calms
down, until her hold on power is clear, but not entirely throw them
under the bus, either,” Mora said.
At least some Cuban military advisers are still working in Venezuela,
four sources familiar with the matter said. Cuban professors also
continue to teach at the state university for police and security
forces, known as UNES, according to a former police officer.
John Polga-Hecimovich, a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland
who has studied the role of Cuban security advisers in Venezuela, said
the legacy of the Cuban counterintelligence effort is still evident in
Caracas, where Maduro’s top loyalists remain in power.
“The Cubans didn’t manage to protect Maduro, but they played a key role
in keeping the Chavista government in power," Polga-Hecimovich said.
“The coup-proofing worked brilliantly.”
Reporting by Sarah Kinosian and Julia Symmes Cobb in Caracas and Laura
Gottesdiener in Monterrey, Mexico. Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and
Michael Learmonth
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group.
View/Reply Online (#40791): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/40791
Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/117938366/21656
-=-=-
POSTING RULES & NOTES
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
#4 Do not exceed five posts a day.
-=-=-
Group Owner: [email protected]
Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy
[[email protected]]
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
