CARACAS, May 23 (Reuters) – The U.S. military conducted a drill over Caracas on Saturday, its first military exercise in Venezuela since U.S. troops attacked the capital and captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores on January 3.
Venezuelan authorities say that attack killed at least 100 people.
The drill, which the Venezuelan government said it had authorized as an evacuation drill for possible medical emergencies or disasters, included two MV-22B Osprey aircraft that landed near the U.S. embassy and vessels that entered Venezuelan waters in the Caribbean Sea.
Venezuela’s information ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. embassy said in a statement it remained “committed to ensuring the implementation” of President Donald Trump’s three-phase plan, “particularly the stabilization of Venezuela.”
Francis Donovan, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Americas, flew on one of the Osprey aircraft into Caracas, where he met with interim government officials.
“This keeps us on guard,” said Evelyn Rebolledo, 57, an administrator living in the capital.
“A foreign country flying over the city itself, this is new to us and more so coming from the United States, given the current situation and all the turmoil in the country. It leaves us in a state of uncertainty.”
Trump’s administration has backed the government of Delcy Rodriguez, formerly Maduro’s vice president, which has passed laws to open up Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and mining resources to the U.S.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado spoke to hundreds of Venezuelan emigrants at a rally in Panama City on Saturday, pledging to continue organizing the movement.
“The moment when I will return to our country is getting closer,” she said. “What is coming is big, what is coming is going to be massive.”
The Nobel Prize laureate, who has sought to court Trump’s favor, has spoken to supporters and leaders from across the world since she fled Venezuela last December after months of living in hiding.
Her opposition movement is widely seen as the legitimate winner of the 2024 election that Maduro was accused of rigging.
(Reporting by Reuters staff; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by David Gregorio and Nia Williams)
