The U.S. landed two military aircraft in the parking lot of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas Saturday during a rapid response drill over four months after the ouster of then-President Nicolás Maduro.
Two Marine Corps Ospreys, which have characteristics of both a helicopter and a fixed-wing airplane, flew over the recently reopened U.S. Embassy in Caracas and landed in the parking lot with the downdraft blowing tree branches. Forces then descended from the aircraft.
“Ensuring the military’s rapid response capability is a key component of mission readiness, both here in Venezuela and around the world,” the embassy said on Instagram.
Venezuela’s government had announced the drill earlier this week. Foreign Minister Yván Gil said the U.S. would conduct the exercise to prepare “in the event of medical emergencies or catastrophic emergencies.”
The drill comes almost two months after the U.S. formally reopened its embassy in Caracas.
The reopening followed the restoration of full diplomatic relations with the South American country after Maduro’s ouster in early January.
Some Caracas residents gathered near the embassy Saturday to watch the aircraft, while a few dozen others gathered elsewhere in the city to protest the exercise.
Protesters held a Venezuelan flag with the message “No to the Yankee drill” written over it.
U.S. military aircraft last flew over Caracas on Jan. 3, when elite forces rappelled down from helicopters and captured Maduro and his wife.
Federal prosecutors allege Maduro led a conspiracy to ship drugs from Venezuela to the United States via the Caribbean and Central America using fishing boats and container ships as well as clandestine airstrips and commercial airports protected by “corrupt government and military officials.”
Both were taken to New York to face drug trafficking charges. They have pleaded not guilty.
They “abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States,” according to the indictment signed by Jay Clayton, the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
The alleged drug-trafficking conspiracy “lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States,” according to the document.
