The United States Military announced on Sunday that additional American troops are arriving in Venezuela—recently devastated by two powerful earthquakes—to facilitate incoming airborne relief and reopen a strategic maritime port.
The Simón Bolívar International Airport, commonly known as Maiquetía, which serves the capital city of Caracas, partially reopened on Saturday. It had sustained significant damage during Wednesday’s twin magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes, which have claimed at least 1,450 lives.
Approximately 100 US Air Force personnel are already on the ground supporting local authorities to “increase the essential flow of inbound and outbound air traffic,” the US Southern Command (Southcom) stated in a press release.
An additional detachment of around 130 US Marines is scheduled to arrive at the heavily impacted northern port of La Guaira within the next 24 hours. According to Southcom, their mission is to “open the port to allow much-needed supplies and equipment to arrive by sea to the hardest-hit regions of Venezuela.”
Read more about this topic: US to send search teams and humanitarian aid to Venezuela (with video)
Tens of thousands of people remain unaccounted for as search operations continue nearly four days after the disaster.
The US military has also deployed transport aircraft and helicopters to assist in the operations. More than 250 US military personnel had already been dispatched to Venezuela, including three specialized rescue brigades tasked with locating potential survivors.
The earthquakes, which struck Venezuela on June 24, have left at least 3,150 injured, according to the latest official figures.
