For the first time in years, U.S. military personnel are operating on Venezuelan soil as part of a large-scale humanitarian mission following the twin earthquakes that devastated the South American nation, marking an extraordinary moment in relations between Washington and Caracas.
The deployment came in the aftermath of the powerful magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes that struck June 24, killing more than 1,400 people, injuring thousands, and leaving 68 thousand missing (NGO extraofficial data) as rescue crews race against time to find survivors.
