'Are we next?': Cuba left reeling in the aftermath of US action in Venezuela

As the US military prepared for months to strike Venezuela, a troubling question circulated widely among Cubans: "Are we next?"

In the aftermath of devastating attacks on Venezuelan military bases and the targeted capture of President Nicolás Maduro by US Special Forces, Cuba now appears firmly within the Trump administration's focus, reports CNN.

Maduro's capture marks a seismic shift for Cuba's communist-led government, which for decades has depended heavily on aid from its oil-rich South American ally to sustain the island's economy and political stability.

At a protest held on Saturday in front of the US Embassy in Havana, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel struck a defiant tone, vowing that the long-standing Cuba-Venezuela alliance would not collapse without resistance.

"For Venezuela, and of course for Cuba, we are willing to give even our own lives, but at a heavy cost," Díaz-Canel declared.

However, many Cubans expressed shock at how easily US forces appeared to have seized Maduro without any reported loss of American personnel.

"For decades, first Hugo Chávez and then Maduro warned of US intervention," said one Havana resident who requested anonymity. "But when it finally happened, no one was ready. The Venezuelans had billions of dollars to equip their military. We don't."

The operation against Venezuela appears to have already exacted a significant toll on Cuba. Speaking to the New York Post on Saturday, US President Donald Trump said, "You know, many Cubans lost their lives last night. … They were protecting Maduro. That was not a good move."

In a Facebook post on Sunday, the Cuban government confirmed that 32 of its citizens were killed during the operation. It said they died "in combat actions, performing missions on behalf of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, at the request of counterparts of the South American country." Two days of national mourning were declared.

The clash appears to mark the first direct combat engagement between the former Cold War adversaries in decades.

The events also seem to validate long-standing suspicions that Maduro's inner security circle included Cuban personnel. For years, foreign diplomats stationed in Caracas reported that Maduro's personal bodyguards spoke Spanish with Cuban accents. Maduro, who studied in Havana in his youth, was also known to place greater trust in Cuban advisers than in many of his own officials.

Maduro's capture now threatens a decades-long alliance that helped spare Cuba from total economic collapse following the disintegration of its former patron, the Soviet Union.

For years, first Chávez and later Maduro supplied Cuba with billions of dollars' worth of oil, propping up the island's economy in exchange for a steady flow of Cuban intelligence officers, economic advisers, and healthcare professionals.

Before his death from cancer in 2013 after months of treatment in Cuban hospitals, Chávez famously declared that Cuba and Venezuela were not two separate nations, but la gran patria – one shared homeland.