Cuba releases details of 32 officers killed in US strike on Venezuela as US defends attack

HAVANA (AP) — The names, ranks and ages of the 32 Cuban military personnel killed during the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces were published Tuesday by the Cuban government, which announced two days of mourning.

Among the deceased are colonels, lieutenants, majors and captains, as well as some reserve soldiers, ranging in age from 26 to 60.

The uniformed personnel belonged to the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, Cuba's two main security agencies. The publication did not specify their missions or exactly how they died.

Cuban state media published their details and headshots, which show them clad in olive-green military uniforms.

On Tuesday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said that Cubans were “prepared to give their lives” against any U.S. intervention as the island pondered a future without Maduro as Venezuela's leader.

“The U.S. president, displaying a complete lack of understanding about Cuba and repeating the agenda of lies of Cuban-American politicians and other interest groups, blasphemes against and threatens our people,” Rodríguez wrote on X. “Our valiant people, true to their history of struggle, will defend their nation against any imperialist aggression.”

In a statement Sunday, Cuban authorities had acknowledged the deaths of the personnel who were in the South American nation as part of agreements between the two countries.

“Our compatriots fulfilled their duty with dignity and heroism, falling after fierce resistance in direct combat against the attackers, or as a result of the bombing of the facilities,” the official statement said.

Information about the Cuban officers killed began trickling out on Monday night, with Cubans publicly saying they had died for a just cause.

“You have to say that to say the same thing as the government,” said Luis Domínguez, who runs the website, Represores Cubanos, or Cuban Repressors, which doxes officials allegedly involved in human rights abuses and violations of democratic norms.

“Inside, Cubans have to be saying something else," he added.

Domínguez said he believes that one of those killed, 67-year-old Col. Humberto Alfonso Roca Sánchez, used to be the garrison commander of Punto Cero, where Fidel Castro once lived.

Another officer who was killed, 62-year-old Col. Lázaro Evangelio Rodríguez Rodríguez, is believed to have overseen Cuba’s coast and border guards, Domínguez said.

As top-tier economic and political allies, Cuba and Venezuela have agreements in areas ranging from security to energy, with the sale of subsidized oil to the island since 2000. However, the extent of military or advisory exchanges has rarely been reported.

A post published Monday on the independent website La Joven Cuba, a blog that provides a platform for many opposition voices on the island, featured a profile of 1st Lt. Yunio Estévez. It was written by a journalist who was a close friend. The post included details of the 32-year-old's life and featured pictures with his three children, whom he had raised together in Guantánamo province in eastern Cuba.

La Joven Cuba report stated that Estévez, a communications expert in charge of a personal security department, was shot during the attack. The post was removed later that evening at the family’s request, the website reported.

The U.S. strike on Venezuela prompted the Organization of American States to hold a special meeting on Tuesday, where a protester interrupted the speech of U.S. Ambassador Leandro Rizzuto.

“The majority of people are against this!” cried out Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, a U.S.-based anti-war nonprofit. “Hands off Venezuela!”

She called for sanctions to be lifted as OAS officials called for security guards who eventually led her out of the room.

Rizzuto resumed his speech after Benjamin was removed: “I understand there are many raw emotions.”

He called the strike a “targeted law enforcement action” against an “indicted criminal.”

“Let me be clear, the U.S. did not invade Venezuela,” Rizzuto said. “President Trump offered Maduro multiple offramps. This was not an interference in democracy…it actually removed the obstacle to it.”

He said the U.S. wants a better and democratic future for Venezuela.

“You cannot continue to have the largest oil reserves in the world under the control of adversaries of the Western Hemisphere while the people of Venezuela have no electricity, substandard quality of life, and its profits don’t benefit the people in Venezuela,” Rizzuto said. “The profits are stolen by a handful of oligarchs around the world, including those inside of Venezuela.”

He also called on the release of an estimated 1,000 political prisoners, saying the U.S. supports the request of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to visit the detention center in person.

After Rizzuto spoke, Peruvian Ambassador Rodolfo Coronado called for a minute of silence for the victims of Maduro’s regime.

During the OAS meeting, representatives of several countries strongly condemned the U.S. strike.

Mauricio Jaramillo, Colombia’s vice minister of foreign relations, denounced what he said was an attack against Venezuela’s sovereignty. He said the unilateral military action was a “clear violation of international law” that set “an extremely worrying” precedent.

Before the special OAS meeting began, about a dozen protesters gathered outside holding signs that read, “No war on Venezuela” and “Arepas Not Bombs.”

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

A mosquito control worker fumigates a home where a television plays a government television news report concerning the U.S. forces' capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, in Old Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Workers fly the Cuban flag at half-mast at the Anti-Imperialist Tribune near the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in memory of Cubans who died two days before in Caracas, Venezuela during the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by U.S. forces. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — On the first day of the 2026 legislative session, Nebraska lawmakers were asked Wednesday to consider a motion to expel a fellow senator accused of making a sexually-charged comment to a legislative staffer and touching her inappropriately during a session-end party last year.

If lawmakers vote next week to expel the 59-year-old Sen. Dan McKeon, a Republican in the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature, it will be the first time the body has ever done so.

The unprecedented move follows a complaint from the staffer that McKeon said she should “get laid” on her vacation and patted her on her buttocks last May during a party at the Lincoln Country Club attended by state lawmakers, staffers and lobbyists.

More attention has focused on sexual harassment within state legislatures nationwide. At least 156 state lawmakers across 44 states have been accused of sexual harassment or misconduct since 2017, when The Associated Press began tracking such incidents amid the #MeToo movement. Of those, 56 have resigned or been expelled from office. A nearly equal number have faced some other type of repercussion, such as losing committee or party leadership positions.

A report on the Nebraska complaint was compiled by an outside law firm at the request of the Legislature's Executive Board and released Wednesday. It found that McKeon has “a reputation for making jokes and that some of those jokes are unprofessional and/or inappropriate for the workplace.”

The report determined that McKeon's conduct did not rise to a level of sexual harassment or retaliation that is actionable under state or federal discrimination law, but that didn't mean it was acceptable. It said McKeon's conduct did violate the Nebraska Legislature's workplace harassment policy, and that lawmakers “may, in their discretion, censure, reprimand or expel the senator for his conduct and comments.”

After interviewing the woman, McKeon and others, the attorney who wrote the report found that the woman, McKeon and another staffer had been discussing vacation plans at the May 29 party when McKeon asked whether the woman was “going to Hawaii to get laid,” she said. McKeon characterized the remark as a joke in which he said he hoped she would get a Hawaiian lei while in Hawaii.

“Complainant was not vacationing in Hawaii so this comment was inconsistent with the discussion of vacation plans,” the report said.

The staffer also said McKeon patted her behind. McKeon initially denied touching the woman, the report said, but later said he may have touched her back or lower back “or even rear end,” but insisted it was not intended to be sexual.

The report also said that following the complaint, McKeon was instructed by Sen. Ben Hansen, chairman of the Executive Board, on June 2 not to attend social gatherings where staffers would be present. Despite this, McKeon attended another party that night also attended by staffers — including the woman who filed the complaint against him — according to the report.

Nearly a month later, urged by Hansen to “accept responsibility for what he was alleged to have done” McKeon sent the woman a note telling her she should find it within herself to forgive him “because that is what the Bible instructs people to do,” the report said.

Then, in August, McKeon texted another staffer who shares an office with the woman, saying she “seems to be difficult to work with,” the report found.

An investigation by the Nebraska State Patrol ultimately led to McKeon being charged with a misdemeanor count of disturbing the peace. McKeon has pleaded not guilty.

McKeon, who attended Wednesday's opening session, declined to comment on the report itself. But his remarks on the complaint against him and the possibility of being expelled were in line with the report's findings, falling back on religious references by saying that his name, Daniel, means “just” in Hebrew and remarking “we're all sinners” when asked about accusations that he's often made inappropriate jokes in the workplace.

He said he has no plans to step down, despite calls from leaders of his own party — including Republican Gov. Jim Pillen — to resign. But he seemed ready to accept that he might be forced out, saying he expects any vote in the full Legislature to “be pretty close.”

“It is what it is,” he said. “I'm not going to cry about it or anything.”

The Legislature's Executive Board will hold a hearing Monday on the resolution to expel McKeon. If it's voted out of committee, the full Legislature could debate it as soon as Tuesday and would need 33 votes to pass.

If McKeon is expelled, he would be the nation's 57th state lawmaker accused of sexual misconduct to have left office via expulsion or resignation since 2017.

State Sen. Daniel McKeon takes notes during the first day of Nebraska's 2026 legislative session, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, at the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln, Neb. (Nikos Frazier/Omaha World-Herald via AP)

State sen. Daniel McKeon sits during the first day of Nebraska's 2026 legislative session, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, at the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln, Neb. (Nikos Frazier/Omaha World-Herald via AP)