CIA director brought paramilitary leader involved in Maduro capture to Cuba meeting, sources say

Source: CBS News

Updated on: May 22, 2026 / 6:04 PM EDT


When CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Havana last week for a rare meeting with senior Cuban officials, he brought along one of the operators involved in the U.S. mission to capture then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro earlier this year, multiple people familiar with the matter told CBS News.

Venezuela and Cuba were allies before Maduro's arrest, and the Cuban government has said 32 of its military and police officers were killed in the January operation to extract Maduro.

Ratcliffe made a point of introducing the paramilitary leader to the Cubans as the one who killed their people in Venezuela, several sources said. The presence of a paramilitary officer who was involved in capturing a key partner of the Cuban government just months earlier may have been intended to send a signal.

The CIA declined to comment.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cia-director-ratcliffe-paramilitary-leader-maduro-capture-in-cuba-meeting/