US military deploys over 900 personnel to Venezuela for earthquake response

The U.S. military has established a robust footprint of U.S. 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, the top U.S. general for Latin America told Reuters.



General Francis Donovan, the commander of U.S. Southern Command, said U.S. forces had participated in search-and-rescue operations, helped get the airport up and running and mobilized air and naval assets to allow for the arrival of humanitarian relief after last week's devastating earthquakes.



He said the U.S. 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."