The top US general in the Latin American region stated that the US military has bolstered its forces in and around Venezuela to support relief operations following two devastating earthquakes, with over 900 personnel currently inside the country and around 800 others stationed in Puerto Rico and Curaçao in the Caribbean.
اضافة اعلان
General Francis Donovan, Commander of US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), said that US forces have participated in search and rescue operations, assisted in reopening the airport, and mobilized air and naval assets to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid after the two earthquakes that shook the country last week.
He added that the US military has also deployed at least four or five MQ-9 Reaper drones over Venezuelan airspace.
"We are using some of the same assets we might use to track threats in the Western Hemisphere to ensure that routes are now open and to make sure we know where damaged buildings are located," Donovan said, adding that some of this information can sometimes be difficult for Venezuelan authorities to detect "from the ground level."
This marks a remarkable turn of events for the US military, which on January 3 launched an operation to apprehend Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and fly him to New York to face trial on drug trafficking charges. Maduro denies any wrongdoing.
"January 3 was not that long ago," Donovan said. "Just think about how this relationship has evolved."
Venezuela was struck by two earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 less than a minute apart last Wednesday, causing buildings to collapse and trapping thousands of people under the rubble.
Donovan said US Marines were the first American personnel on the ground, assisting rescue teams in digging through the rubble to locate survivors. The US military helped airlift civilians, including rescue teams from Fairfax, Virginia, who released a video over the weekend showing the rescue of a mother and her nine-month-old child.
He added that the broader operation requires intensive logistical efforts and focuses on helping to ensure that life-saving international aid does not pile up at points of entry.
The Venezuelan government has faced criticism for failing to move earlier to deploy heavy machinery and search and rescue teams, leaving residents to fend for themselves using their bare hands, shovels, and ropes as they rushed to find their relatives in the critical first days following the disaster.
By Saturday, state television showed heavy construction equipment working amid demolished brick and concrete in some areas. Residents noted that foreign rescue teams had helped them recover bodies.
Donovan declined to speculate on how long the US military's mission in Venezuela would last, referring the matter to the US State Department, which is leading the broader American relief mission.
However, he stated that the US military is not preparing for any long-term mission on the ground with the forces currently deployed to assist in the relief efforts.
Reuters
