Click to view full size

Cuban sol­diers wear­ing white gloves marched out of a plane on Thurs­day car­ry­ing urns with the re­mains of the 32 Cuban of­fi­cers killed dur­ing a stun­ning U.S. at­tack on Venezuela as trum­pets and drums played solemn­ly at Ha­vana’s air­port.

Near­by, thou­sands of Cubans lined one of Ha­vana’s most icon­ic streets to await the bod­ies of colonels, lieu­tenants, ma­jors and cap­tains as the is­land re­mained un­der threat by the ad­min­is­tra­tion of U.S. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump.

The sol­diers’ shoes clacked as they marched stiff-legged in­to the head­quar­ters of the Min­istry of the Armed Forces, next to Rev­o­lu­tion Square, with the urns and placed them on a long ta­ble next to the pic­tures of those killed. Tens of thou­sands of peo­ple paid their re­spects, salut­ing the urns or hold­ing their hand over their heart, many of them drenched from stand­ing out­side in a heavy down­pour.