The ceremony underscored the human cost of Saturday’s raid, as Venezuelan and Cuban officials offered sharply higher death tolls than Venezuela’s military had acknowledged and Venezuela’s attorney general announced a war-crimes investigation into the operation.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s military held a state funeral Wednesday in the capital for some of the soldiers killed during the U.S. operation that captured then-President Nicolás Maduro four days earlier. Military orchestral music accompanied families and uniformed officers as they marched behind flag-draped wooden caskets at a cemetery on the city’s south side, where the dead were honored with a gun salute as loved ones wailed.

“Thank you for letting them embrace a military career,” military commander Rafael Murillo said to families gathered at the graveside, the Associated Press reported. Armed National Guard members patrolled parts of the cemetery for hours before and during the ceremony, which followed an emotional wake.

Competing death tolls

Venezuela’s military has said at least 24 Venezuelan officers were killed in Saturday’s dead-of-night raid, in which U.S. forces captured Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores and transported them to New York to face drug charges. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello offered a substantially higher count Wednesday on state television, saying at least 100 people were killed and a similar number injured during the operation. He did not provide a breakdown between civilians and military personnel or identify their nationalities.

Cuba has separately said 32 Cuban military and police officers working in Venezuela were killed in the operation.

Maduro and Flores each pleaded not guilty to the charges in a U.S. court Monday. The funeral came a day after acting President Delcy Rodríguez declared a seven-day mourning period for the fallen officers.

Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab said prosecutors would investigate the deaths as a war crime. The Venezuelan military, in an Instagram post Monday, framed the deaths as a call to continued resistance. “Their spilled blood does not cry out for vengeance, but for justice and strength,” the post read, adding a pledge to “not rest until we rescue our legitimate President.”