Cuba is left reeling in the aftermath of the Venezuela strike
Story by Analysis by Patrick Oppmann, CNN • 8h
For months as the US military prepared to strike Venezuela, many Cubans have asked me a simple, if disconcerting, question: “Are we next?”
Following the devastating attacks on Venezuelan military bases and surgical apprehension of leader Nicolás Maduro by US Special Forces, Cuba seems very much in the Trump administration’s sights.
Maduro’s capture is a seismic reversal of fortune for Cuba’s communist-run government, which for decades has relied on massive aid packages from its oil-rich South American ally for the island’s very survival.
At a protest Saturday in front of the US Embassy in Havana, a defiant Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel promised not to let the Cuba-Venezuela alliance go down without a fight.
But if anything, the Cubans I have spoken with since the strikes seemed shocked by how easy it seemed for the US military to snatch Maduro without any loss of US personnel.
“For decades, first (former Venezuelan leader Hugo) Chavez and then Maduro warned of a US intervention,” said one Havana resident, who did not want their name used. “But when it finally happened, no one was ready for it. The Venezuelans had billions of dollars to equip their military. We don’t.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/cuba-is-left-reeling-in-the-aftermath-of-the-venezuela-strike/ar-AA1Tzqw3?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=695b922594334d98b404be47c6d2d676&ei=64
