Cuban security officials leave Venezuela amid mounting US pressure

Cuban security advisors, doctors and other officials working in Venezuela have started departing the country amid intensifying pressure from the United States (U.S.) on the acting Venezuela President Delcy Rodriguez.

A Reuters report quoting 11 sources familiar with the matter claims that Washington is pressuring Rodriguez to dismantle Latin America’s leftist alliance that has shaped the region’s geopolitics since the 2000s.

The acting Venezuelan president has removed all the Cuban special forces from her security detail and entrusted her protection to Venezuelan bodyguards. This marks a major shift from previous administrations of late Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, who both relied on Cuban special forces.

A Venezuela expert and associate professor of history at New York University, Alejandro Velasco, said, “The Cuban influence was absolutely essential for the survival of Chavista government.”

The Cuban officials who were embedded in the Venezuelan intelligence agency DGCIM as part of a security agreement between the two countries have also been removed from their posts.

One source close to the ruling party claimed that Cubans were leaving on the orders of Rodriguez. Two others confirmed the departure of Cubans but were not sure if they were leaving on Rodriguez’s orders.

The U.S. has also blockaded Venezuela from shipping oil to Cuba as part of Washington’s broader strategy to achieve regime-change in Havana’s communist-government.

Neither Venezuela nor Cuba has officially confirmed the withdrawal of Cuban personnel from the presidential guard or counterintelligence units.