U.S. military forces successfully conducted a rapid response drill in Caracas, Venezuela, over the weekend — an unprecedented military activity that comes nearly five months after American forces arrested socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro in the Venezuelan capital.
The military drill, carried out on Saturday, saw two U.S. Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey aircraft fly over the Venezuelan capital, landing in the parking lot of the recently-reopened U.S. Embassy located in Caracas’s Colinas de Valle Arriba neighborhood.
“A U.S. military response exercise is currently underway at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas,” the U.S. embassy wrote in a Spanish-language social media post alongside footage of one of the Osprey aircraft. “Ensuring the military’s rapid response capability is a key component of mission readiness, both here in Venezuela and around the world. We continue to make progress on President Donald Trump’s three-phase plan for Venezuela.”
The head of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), Marine Gen. Francis L. Donovan, observed Saturday’s military response exercise and traveled to Caracas aboard one of the Osprey aircraft to meet with officials of Venezuela’s interim socialist regime and U.S. embassy staff. Gen. Donovan’s visit Saturday marked the second time the SOUTHCOM commander has visited Venezuela, his official visit in February being the first.
SOUTHCOM shared pictures of Gen. Donovan’s visit on social media and detailed that it remains committed to President Trump’s three-phase plan — stabilization, recovery, and transition — towards restoring democracy in Venezuela, particularly its first stabilization phase.
“The United States is committed to a free, safe, and prosperous Venezuela for the Venezuelan people, the United States, and the Western Hemisphere,” SOUTHCOM wrote.
The Venezuelan socialist regime first revealed Saturday’s U.S. military drill in an official statement published by its Foreign Affairs Ministry and read live on state-owned television by Foreign Minister Yván Gil.
Gil said the U.S. military drill is part of standard diplomatic security procedures for responding to medical emergencies or catastrophic events. The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry noted that it was “preemptively” informing Venezuela’s citizens of the drill, which was duly requested and authorized through diplomatic channels. Venezuelan outlets, however, noted that Gil deleted the statement and video from his own social media accounts.
The statement was also reportedly deleted from the Venezuelan regime’s official social media accounts with no apparent public explanation. According to the outlet El Pitazo, socialist politicians and members of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) objected to the U.S. military drill in Caracas.
“As part of its standard security and contingency management protocols, the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela conducted an evacuation drill this Saturday, designed to respond to potential medical emergencies or catastrophic situations at its diplomatic facilities,” the Venezuelan Communications Ministry said in a brief Saturday statement. “The drill is proceeding as planned.”
Saturday’s U.S. military drill in Caracas came nearly five months after President Donald Trump authorized a U.S. military law enforcement operation in the Venezuelan capital to arrest Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The two presently remain detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn facing ongoing trial proceedings on multiple drug-trafficking charges.
Since then, the Venezuelan regime, now led by “acting President” Delcy Rodríguez, has been collaborating with the Trump administration. The socialist regime’s collaboration has so far resulted in multiple oil, energy, and mineral deals between Venezuela and the United States; the restoration of diplomatic ties between both countries; and the reopening of direct commercial flight routes between Miami and Caracas.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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