Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela's Interior Minister, has claimed that 100 people died in the US military operation that extracted Nicolás Maduro from Caracas on January 3, a figure that vastly exceeds confirmed casualty counts and appears designed to construct a martyr narrative for a regime now negotiating its survival with Washington.

Speaking on his weekly television programme Con el Mazo Dando (Striking with the Club) on January 7, Cabello said that victims included "civilians, women who were in their homes" killed by "very powerful bombs," alongside Venezuelan military personnel and 32 Cuban forces whose deaths Havana confirmed a day earlier. He claimed Maduro suffered a leg injury during capture whilst his wife Cilia Flores sustained head injuries.

Yet the regime has provided no evidence supporting the 100-death toll, and its own figures are inconsistent. Venezuela's army posted a list of just 23 military casualties, whilst Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced investigations into "dozens" of deaths without specifying numbers. The dramatic escalation from confirmed figures to Cabello's claim points to an uncoordinated propaganda effort rather than factual accounting.

Acting president Delcy Rodríguez declared a week of mourning for fallen military members as the regime attempts to balance competing imperatives: satisfying US demands for cooperation whilst seeking to keep a revolutionary facade before a domestic audience increasingly aware that Caracas is accommodating Washington's diktat.

Cabello, who commands intelligence services accused by the United Nations of crimes against humanity, described Maduro as a "prisoner of war" and condemned the US operation as violating "all norms of international coexistence." He claimed possession of audiovisual evidence demonstrating attacks on civilian populations, though no such material has been released publicly.

The messaging aligns with Cabello's mission to position himself as the regime's ideological guardian, the hard-liner who maintains revolutionary purity whilst the Rodríguez siblings negotiate with the White House. Reuters reported this week that the Trump administration has warned Cabello that defiance could bring consequences matching those visited upon Maduro, yet simultaneously depends on his brutal security apparatus to prevent the chaos that would undermine American oil objectives.

His invocation of fallen "martyrs" including Cubans stationed in Venezuela serves multiple purposes, such as rallying nationalist sentiment against foreign intervention, boasting a continued alliance with Havana despite US demands that Venezuela sever such ties, and establishing casualties as moral leverage in whatever negotiations the interim government pursues with Washington.

The Trump administration acknowledged seven injured American service members, five of whom have returned to duty whilst two continue recovering. A Pentagon official described the mission as "extremely complex and grueling" whilst noting that "so few injuries is a testament to the expertise of our joint warriors."

Cuba's Communist Party newspaper Granma published names, ranks and ages of 32 military and police officers killed during what Havana hailed as "fierce resistance" to "state terrorism perpetrated against the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela." The Cuban forces were deployed at Caracas's request, according to Havana's statement, confirming the foreign military presence that Washington has demanded Venezuela eliminate.

Cabello's defiant posture clashes with actions taken by the interim government he claims to support. Hours after his broadcast, National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez, Delcy's brother, announced the release of a slew of political prisoners in what is viewed as a gesture demonstrating willingness to meet American demands.

The Rodríguez siblings have so far delivered on key US requirements including oil sales, prisoner releases, and cooperation regarding intercepted tankers, whilst Cabello continues to push Chavista rhetoric about resisting American "barbarism." This division of labour allows the regime to yield to Washington's pressure whilst preserving some kind of ideological credibility before hard-line Chavistas who might otherwise view cooperation as betrayal.