MEXICO CITY

The Cuban government welcomed the remains Thursday of 32 Cuban military officers who were killed Jan. 3 in Venezuela by US forces during airstrikes to depose President Nicolas Maduro.

The remains were transported in urns to the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, where relatives and the military gathered. The soldiers were deployed to Venezuela as part of a security agreement, and are reported to have been part of Maduro’s security detail.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Army Gen. Raul Castro Ruz, 94, attended the ceremony at the José Martí International Airport in Havana.

The troops were officers of the armed forces and the Interior Ministry of Cuba.

“We do not receive them with resignation; we do so with deep pride,” said Interior Minister Gen. Lazaro Alberto Alvarez, who presided over the ceremony.

The ceremony is part of a two-day national bereavement ordered by the government. A March of the Combatant People will take place Friday in Havana, starting at the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune, a square facing the US Embassy.

Then remains will then be buried, and all municipalities will hold posthumous tribute ceremonies.

After the bombings in Caracas and the capture of Maduro, US President Donald Trump announced that all oil and aid from Venezuela to Cuba would be hampered, affirming that the island is “ready to fall.”

Diaz-Canel has since said there is no channel of communication with the Trump administration but that Cuba is willing to sustain a “serious and respectful” dialogue with the US.

“As history shows, relations between the United States and Cuba, in order to move forward, must be based on international law rather than on hostility, threats, and economic coercion,” he wrote on US social media company X.