Havana reacted quickly, but it did so following a familiar, almost automatic script.
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, 3 January 2025 — In the early morning hours of Saturday, as darkness descended across large zones of the island, the political landscape of the Cuban regime’s main ally was being shaken. The United States carried out an attack on military installations in Venezuela, and shortly afterward, President Donald Trump announced that Nicolás Maduro had been captured and removed from the country.
Havana didn’t delay in reacting, but it followed a familiar, almost automatic script. From his account on X, President Miguel Díaz-Canel denounced “the criminal attack by the US on Venezuela” and demanded an “urgent” response from the international community. “Our zone of peace is being brutally assaulted,” he asserted. “State terrorism against the brave Venezuelan people and against our America,” he added in the hasty message, resorting to a rhetorical repertoire that is activated in Cuba whenever Washington makes a move on the continent. The biological clock of Cuban power was calibrated to respond before the sun rose and uncomfortable questions arose.
The speed of the pronouncement contrasts sharply with its lack of nuance. For Havana, the narrative has been clear from the first minute: imperialist aggression and violation of sovereignty. The old reflex of closing ranks with Caracas has once again prevailed, even though the regional and global context is very different today than it was a decade ago.
While the Cuban government is refining its condemnation, the reaction on social media has been less solemn and more down-to-earth.
While the Cuban government is finalizing its condemnation, the reaction on social media has been less solemn and more down-to-earth. As soon as the news broke, groups on Telegram and WhatsApp erupted. “Venezuelan oil is gone!” a young woman wrote to her family, bluntly and without slogans, putting her finger on the wound that really hurts on the Island. In a country plagued by daily blackouts, where the energy crisis is measured in hours without power and food spoiling, Maduro’s capture was immediately interpreted in domestic terms: what will happen now to the fuel that, for better or worse, keeps the Cuban electrical system afloat?
That popular interpretation says more about the current situation in Cuba than any official statement. The alliance with Caracas is not merely ideological; it is, above all, about energy and survival. That is why Havana’s inflammatory rhetoric sounds increasingly defensive, like someone shouting to ward off a very real fear.
Another phrase has also been repeated in the phone calls between friends that began before dawn: “Cuba is next,”a retiree from eastern Cuba said an audio message sent by Messenger, with a sense of finality from one who has been waiting for decades for the fall of Castroism.
The diplomatic and political alliance between the two regimes has been very close since the beginning of this century, which is why the “extraction” of the Venezuelan president leaves Havana more isolated in a regional landscape where it has lost much influence in recent years.
What happens in the coming hours is crucial for both nations, but it is already clear that the boastful and arrogant Nicolás Maduro is a thing of the past. The Cuban dictatorship will be watching him closely in his next appearances, like someone looking in a mirror.
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A version of this text was published on DW
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