According to a former Maduro bodyguard, Havana “eliminates any Venezuelan presence in the immediate surroundings” of the president.

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 12 April 2025 — The revelations about Nicolás Maduro’s intimate life revealed this Friday by one of his bodyguards, Gustavo Graterol, are comparable to those published in 2014 by former Cuban military officer Juan Reinaldo Sánchez about Fidel Castro. Luxuries, Santeria practices, secret bunkers, and obsessive surveillance keep the heir to Chavismo alive, all under the diligent control of Havana.
This is what Graterol calls “the role of the Cubans” in Venezuela, referring to the military intelligence corps that monitors every move of Maduro and his lieutenants. The instructions of the Cuban nomenklatura not only guide the dictator’s movements in this world, but also—the former sergeant asserts—in the next.
During an interview with the newspaper El Nacional, Graterol confirmed what other sources had stated. Maduro, following the tradition of Cuban leaders, performs rituals that the former military officer couldn’t define, but which have all the characteristics of Yoruba rituals : “They killed chickens, drank blood, birds, dogs,” he lists.
The “Cuban witch doctors” who work for Caracas are in a computerized “database”
These practices “are common” in Miraflores, Graterol asserts—not without excitement—every Tuesday and Thursday. Maduro, his wife, Cilia Flores, generals, and ministers of the regime participate in them. The “Cuban witch doctors” who work for Caracas are in a computerized “database.” They are, he claims, responsible for removing bones from cemeteries, a requirement of the rituals of Palo Monte, another Afro-Cuban religion. continue reading
But Maduro doesn’t need the orishas that much to maintain his surveillance of Venezuelans. A “secret spy room,” equipped with 20 giant 76-inch screens and a modern communications system, in addition to the human component, keeps an eye on three targets: the Venezuelan people, “suspicious” members of the hierarchy, and Maduro himself.
Graterol defines the place as a “brain,” which is also controlled by Cuban soldiers dressed in Venezuelan uniforms. Also present—with voice but almost no vote—are the Minister of Defense and other members of the Army’s top brass. “They monitor all military and civilian personnel of the State,” he notes.
Cubans dominate Maduro’s inner circle—the successive “rings” of protection are similar to Castro’s—and their surveillance determines “every aspect of his life,” including his diet and sleeping arrangements. His cooks, nurses, and doctors are Cuban, Graterol warns, and “they eliminate any Venezuelan presence in his immediate surroundings.”
“They were put there because they had instructions from Cuba to monitor and spy on people and military personnel who say anything contrary to the government.”
“There is a Cuban official in each general command,” he explains. They are responsible for detecting and silencing high-ranking officials who “mutter” against Maduro. “They were placed there because they have instructions from Cuba to monitor and spy on people and military personnel who say anything against the government,” he summarizes.
The impregnability of Cuban management is even more evident, according to the former bodyguard, at Los Pinos, a secret residence that replaces the traditional presidential mansion. Undetectable, partly underground, surrounded by vegetation and mountains, it is supposedly hidden from any radar or satellite.
“You can search for it on Google and it won’t give you the location because it’s inside a mountain,” the former soldier claims. Six escape tunnels lead from it, with camouflaged entrances from a military hospital, the Bolívar Battalion headquarters, and other exits that no one knows about, “except for the soldiers in the first ring and the Cubans.”
Graterol has promised to continue speaking about Maduro in the future. A previously unknown figure, with an illustrious surname in Venezuela—and one of the oldest in the Americas—he has not revealed, however, how he escaped, and under what conditions, one of the key points of Chavismo’s security.
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