Cuba Fears Fallout After Maduro Seizure and Oil Risk (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Cubans have been deeply shaken, first by the news of the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, a close ally to Cuba, and also by the news that 32 of their military and intelligence operatives were killed in the U.S. attack that seized Maduro. It's been long rumored that Maduro used Cuban troops essentially as his closest bodyguards, that he trusted them even more than his own Venezuelan soldiers. It's something that Havana has long denied, but this news that 32 Cuban soldiers were died in the attack at the cost of absolutely no U.S. fatalities has really surprised Cubans. It's believed to be the first time that Cuban and U.S. military forces have faced off in decades, probably at least since the end of the Cold War, and many people are asking now what comes next. Is Cuba going to be a target? Is the U.S. going to continue to attack countries as part of Trump's new Monroe Doctrine, that he will not allow countries in the hemisphere that operate contrary to U.S. interests? Certainly Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who himself is Cuban-American, has called for years for the overthrow of Cuba's communist-run government, but even if there isn't military intervention, the loss, the potential loss of their ally Venezuela means that billions of dollars of oil will stop flowing to Cuba. That is oil that has been absolutely essential to keeping the lights on. Already there have been disruptions in oil shipments with the military pressure from the U.S. on Venezuela, and so now that Cuba may be losing this ally, that there is chaos and political turmoil in Venezuela, can only spell more trouble for Havana.