The Venezuelan Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, reported this Friday that 47 members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) died during the US intervention of January 3 in Venezuelaan operation that resulted in the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who remain detained in the United States.
During a ceremony to award civilian and military personnel, Padrino López explained that nine women were among the victims. Likewise, he indicated that the incursion left more than 112 injured, who already received medical attention.
“Faced with technology and an overwhelming amount of media, in an unequal situation against Venezuela, there are 47 men and women of the FANB, nine of them women, who gave their lives,” the military chief emphasized in a broadcast on the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).
Padrino highlighted that the fallen soldiers “fulfilled history” by giving their lives for the defense of the nation and recalled that, in addition, 32 Cuban citizens died during the US incursion.
Assistance Commission and a National Monument
He added that the president in charge of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez – who took office after Maduro’s capture – has ordered the formation of a commission to assist the families of the deceased and injured, in order to provide support in “everything necessary” and address their “social and economic requirements.”
He also announced that the construction of a national monument has been arranged in honor of the victims and said that work is already underway to define its “best location.”
On Thursday, during the presentation of the annual government management report, Delcy Rodriguez He began his speech with a minute of applause in tribute to those who fell in the January 3 operation.
That same day, in Cuba, thousands of people said goodbye to the 32 soldiers who died in the attacks. The mortuary boxes were transported in a caravan through the streets of Havana to the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Minfar).
A week earlier, the Venezuelan government promoted and posthumously decorated the soldiers killed during the attacks, in an event in Caracas presided over by the president in charge along with the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez.
