Accompanied by his Cuban counterpart, Army General Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, the Russian Interior Minister paid tribute this Tuesday to the Cubans who fell in combat on January 3 in Venezuela. Photo: ACN.
The Minister of the Interior of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Alexandrovich Kolokoltsev, paid tribute this Tuesday to the Cuban combatants who fell on January 3 in a confrontation with US forces during the military aggression against Venezuela.
In front of the Firefighters’ Mausoleum in the Colón Necropolis, in Havana, he laid a wreath in memory of the courage and sacrifice of the fallen, during a political event in which he was accompanied by his Cuban counterpart, Army General Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, other military leaders and the visiting delegation he heads, in addition to Viktor V. Koronelli, Russian ambassador to Cuba, and part of the diplomatic corps.
Brigadier General Oscar Callejas Valcarce, head of the Political Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior (Minint), highlighted the indelible example of the combatants as part of the values shared by Cuba and Russia, based on loyalty, bravery and patriotism.
Callejas Valcarce said that, in the midst of the turbulent events that Latin America and the Caribbean are experiencing in the face of the pretensions of North American imperialism, the presence in Cuba of the senior Russian official is another example of the indestructible union between sister nations that honor that history with deeds and sacrifice.
He also expressed satisfaction with the words of President Vladimir Putin, when receiving the new Cuban ambassador in Moscow in recent days, to whom he ratified the deep and solid nature of bilateral relations.
“In memory of our fallen, we will honor the commitment to remain loyal to history, sovereign, and we will never betray our principles,” he concluded.
Tribute ceremony for the Cubans who fell in the US military aggression against Venezuela on January 3, in which the Minister of the Interior of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Alexandrovich Kolokoltsev, participated on January 20, 2026. Photo: ACN.
As part of the tribute day, Kolokoltsev also laid a wreath in front of the Mausoleum to the Soviet Internationalist Soldier, inaugurated in 1978 by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz on the 60th anniversary of the Red Army.
In the Necropolis of Colón rest the mortal remains of four of the 32 Cuban combatants who fell in Venezuela during the US attack on January 3, which left dozens of military and civilian victims and aimed at the kidnapping of constitutional president Nicolás Maduro, who was illegally taken to the United States along with the first lady Cilia Flores.
