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Venezuela’s military held a mass funeral in the capital on Wednesday for soldiers slain during a U.S. military operation that targeted President Nicolás Maduro over the weekend.
Flag-draped wooden caskets were carried past rows of uniformed officers as a military orchestra played, and gun salutes echoed over the state-owned cemetery in a low-income district in the city’s south.
Family members and fellow soldiers followed behind the coffins, while earlier in the day, relatives wept beside the remains during a wake.
“Thank you for letting them embrace a military career,” Rafael Murillo, a commander in the military, said to families surrounding him.
Armed members of the National Guard guarded parts of the area as families completed the paperwork for burials.
The Venezuelan government has reported at least 100 deaths in the U.S. operation, including soldiers and others, with around the same number wounded, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on state television.
“So far — and I mean so far — there are 100 dead and a similar number of wounded. The attack on our country was terrible,” Cabello said.
The military has publicly listed only 23 deceased officers’ names so far.
Officials have described much of Maduro’s security detail as killed “in cold blood” during the raid, and Cuba has said 32 of its military and intelligence personnel stationed in Venezuela died in the operation.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were reportedly injured during the raid but are “recovering”, according to Venezuelan officials.
Both have since been seen walking under their own power during Maduro’s arraignment in New York, where he faces drug-related charges.
