Zürcher Nachrichten - US forces killed 55 Venezuelan, Cuban military personnel in Maduro raid: tolls

In the first confirmation of its losses, Venezuela's military said 23 of its service members died in Saturday's attacks by the United States, which led to the ouster of Maduro as the country's leader. Caracas has yet to give an official figure for civilian casualties.

Cuba, which had already announced that 32 members of its armed forces and interior ministry security personnel assigned to duties in Caracas were killed in the raids, also listed its dead.

They ranged in age from 26 to 67 and included two colonels and one lieutenant colonel.

Many of the dead Cubans are believed to have been members of Maduro's security detail, which was largely wiped out in the attacks, according to Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez.

The assault began with bombing raids on military targets and culminated with US special forces swooping in by helicopter to seize Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from a compound.

They were later taken to New York, where they appeared in court on Monday and pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday called on the United States to ensure Maduro receives a "fair trial."

- Interim president's challenges -

Hours after their court appearance, Maduro's former deputy Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as interim president.

US President Donald Trump said he is willing to work with her, as long as she submits to his demands on providing US companies access to Venezuela's massive oil reserves.

Rodriguez faces a delicate balancing act in trying to respond to those demands while keeping Maduro loyalists on her side.

She has sought to project unity with the hardliners in Maduro's administration, who control the security forces and powerful paramilitaries that have patrolled the streets in the days since the deposed leader's capture.

In a sign that a repressive security apparatus remains in place, 14 journalists and media workers, most of them representing foreign media, were detained while covering the presidential inauguration at parliament on Monday, a journalists' union said.

Two other journalists for foreign media were detained near the Colombian border.

All were later released.

- Opposition lashes out -

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has been given no role by Washington in the post-Maduro transition, said in a Fox News interview that Rodriguez was not to be trusted.

"Delcy Rodriguez as you know is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narcotrafficking," she said.

"She's the main ally and liaison with Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual that could be trusted by international investors."

Trump has so far backed Rodriguez, but warned she would pay "a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro" if she does not comply with Washington's agenda.

So far she has made no changes to the cabinet, with Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Padrino Lopez, widely seen as wielding the real power in Venezuela, retaining their posts.

- 'We will win' -

A retired general who held high-ranking positions in the military predicted that Rodriguez would throw open Venezuela to US oil and mining companies and perhaps resume diplomatic ties, broken off by Maduro in 2019.

He also believed she would seek to appease criticism of Venezuela's dire rights record by releasing political prisoners.

Trump on Tuesday called Maduro a "violent guy" who "killed millions of people" and whose government engaged in torture.

"They have a torture chamber in the middle of Caracas that they are closing up," he claimed.

The constitution says that after Maduro is formally declared absent, elections must then be held within 30 days.

Machado told Fox News that "in free and fair elections, we will win by over 90 percent of the votes, I have no doubt about it."

She vowed to "turn Venezuela into the energy hub of the Americas"; "dismantle all these criminal structures" and "bring millions of Venezuelans that have been forced to flee our country back home."

She also offered to give her Nobel prize -- an award Trump has long publicly coveted -- to the US president.

Machado said, however, that she had not spoken to Trump since October 10.

I.Widmer--NZN