Marines conduct a rapid response exercise at the US Embassy in Venezuela’s capital
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The U.S. military conducted a rapid response exercise involving Marines and military aircraft in Venezuela’s capital on Saturday, more than four months after the attack. Overthrow of then-President Nicolás Maduro.
Two Marine Corps Osprey aircraft with both helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft capabilities, recently reopened the US Embassy in Caracas. They landed in the parking lot with tree branches flying downwards. The forces then disembarked from the plane.
“Ensuring the military’s rapid response capability is an important component of mission readiness both in Venezuela and globally,” the embassy said on Instagram.
The Venezuelan government announced the exercise earlier this week. Foreign Minister Yván Gil said the United States would conduct the exercise in preparation for “medical emergencies or catastrophic emergencies.”
The exercise comes almost two months after the United States officially reopened its embassy in Caracas. The reopening follows the full restoration of diplomatic relations with the South American country. Maduro’s ouster in early January.
While some Caracas residents gathered near the embassy to watch the plane, several dozen others gathered elsewhere in the city to protest Saturday’s exercise. Protesters carried a Venezuelan flag that read “No Yankee drill.”
While US military planes last flew over Caracas on January 3, elite forces got off the helicopters and captured Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Both were taken to New York to face drug trafficking charges. They pleaded not guilty.
Squadron markings on the Ospreys that landed in the capital on Saturday identified them as belonging to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263. The same squadron is currently deployed aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima in the Caribbean Ocean. Maduro and Flores were taken to that warship immediately after being detained.
Head of US military operations in Latin America observed the exercise firsthand. Marine Gen. Francis Donovan, head of U.S. Southern Command, also met with senior Venezuelan officials and embassy staff on Saturday.
U.S. Southern Command said at X that Donovan arrived in one of the Ospreys for his second official visit to Caracas this year. during a visit in februaryDonovan met with Venezuela’s defense and interior ministers.
