Raid to relief as US military aids Venezuela after twin earthquakes
US deploys forces and drone assets to spearhead relief, marking a stunning shift for a relationship upended by a raid six months ago
The US military has established a robust footprint of US forces in and around Venezuela to support relief operations, with more than 900 personnel inside the country and another roughly 800 in Caribbean hubs Puerto Rico and Curacao, according to the top US general for Latin America.
General Francis Donovan, the commander of US Southern Command, said US forces had participated in search-and-rescue operations, helped get the airport up and running and mobilised air and naval assets to allow for the arrival of humanitarian relief after last week’s devastating earthquakes.
He said the US military had also deployed at least four or five MQ-9 Reaper drones over Venezuela, which, along with a fusion cell in Miami, is bolstering the intelligence picture for Venezuelan authorities.
“We’re using some of the same assets we might use to track hemispheric threats (to) now ensure roadways are open and ensure that we know where the damaged buildings are,” Donovan said, adding some of those insights may sometimes be harder for Venezuelan authorities to see “from the ground level”.
It is a remarkable turn of events for the US military, which on January 3 carried out a raid to grab Venezuela’s then-president Nicolas Maduro and fly him to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges. Maduro denies any wrongdoing.
In the past month, the US military carried out a strike that killed the leader of Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, an action taken in coordination with Venezuelan authorities.