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CARACAS: Cuban security advisers and doctors have been leaving Venezuela as Interim President Delcy Rodriguez’s government faces intense pressure from Washington to unwind Latin Americas most consequential leftist alliance, according to 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. Thirty-two Cubans were killed in the US military attack that captured Maduro on Jan 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, 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 US 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.
Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2026
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