Cuban soldiers and doctors leave Venezuela

Cuban soldiers, intelligence agents and thousands of doctors are leaving Venezuela. The withdrawal, accelerated in recent weeks, marks the end of a strategic partnership that lasted more than 20 years — and was fundamental both for the survival of Chavismo and for Havana’s influence in Latin America.

The process began with the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro, on January 3rd. During the American operation in Caracas, 32 Cuban bodyguards died — confirming the foreign military presence in the country.

Since then, the United States government has been pressuring interim dictator Delcy Rodríguez to definitively break with Havana as a condition for any rapprochement with Washington. And Rodríguez, at least at this first moment, accepted the terms.

Cuban advisors were removed from posts in the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, the feared secret service that for years operated with the direct participation of Havana agents. The Cuban personal guard, which protected Chávez and Maduro, was also dismissed.

For analysts, these are symbolic gestures, but with considerable political weight.

Their “More Doctors”

The output is not limited to the military field. Thousands of Cuban doctors and nurses, who worked on Chavismo’s social programs in poor communities in the country, are also returning to the Caribbean island.

This medical partnership was, in practice, paid for with Venezuelan oil, through an agreement that sustained the Cuban economy for decades — any similarity with the Mais Médicos Program, created under the PT governments, is not a mere historical coincidence.

“Berlin Wall Moment”

While Washington already classifies the Cuban regime as “bankrupt”, Venezuela is trying to get closer to the Americans in areas such as drug trafficking and migration — priority issues for the Trump administration in the region.

On the 18th, Marine General Francis L. Donovan, head of the US Southern Command, visited Caracas on a surprise trip. He met with Venezuelan authorities and discussed projects for “stabilization of the country and security in the Western Hemisphere”.

In plain English, the two parties sat down at the table to redesign their military relationship and send a political message to Havana and to the heirs of Chavismo themselves. After all, Cuban support — spread across the Armed Forces, secret services and social policies — was what guaranteed the Venezuelan regime to survive the overthrow attempts.

The day after General Donovan’s meeting with the interim government, the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, Maria Corina Machado, praised the American strategy of dismantling the alliance between Chavistas and Cubans. According to her, the reduction of Havana’s influence in the country is “the Berlin Wall moment of the Americas”.