The U.S. military has built up a strong presence of U.S. troops in and around Venezuela to assist relief efforts, and they now have a war footprint of more than 900 troops in Venezuela, and about 800 in Caribbean bases Puerto Rico and Curacao, according to the top U.S. military official for Latin America to Reuters.

U.S. forces had helped get the airport up and running and mobilised the air and naval forces for search and rescue missions and humanitarian relief following the devastating earthquakes last week, General Francis Donovan, commander of U.S. Southern Command, said.

Aside from the migration of a fusion cell to Miami, the U.S. military has sent at least four or five MQ-9 drone aircraft over to Venezuela to help with the intelligence picture for Venezuelan authorities, he said.

“We’re using some of the same ​assets we might use to track hemispheric threats (to) now ensure roadways are open and ensure that we know where the damaged ⁠buildings are,” Donovan said, adding some of those insights may sometimes be harder for Venezuelan authorities to see “from the ground level.”

It is a remarkable turn of events ​for the U.S. military, which on January 3 carried out a raid to grab Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and fly him to New York to stand trial on drug ​trafficking charges. It is denied that Maduro is guilty of anything.

The U.S. military has struck at the head of a prison gang in Venezuela in the past month, killing its leader, Tren de Aragua, in a joint operation with the Venezuelan police.

But January 3rd wasn’t too long ago. But pondering this relationship, Donovan said, “And just think about how this relationship has changed.”

Venezuela was hit by two earthquakes of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, less than a minute ​apart last Wednesday, toppling buildings and trapping thousands of people beneath the rubble.

With chances of survival narrowing by the hour, Venezuela’s legislature head Jorge Rodriguez said on Tuesday, only one survivor — a ​3-year-old child — had been rescued so far during the sixth day of rescue efforts. These are continuing, though.

U.S. Marines were among the first U.S. troops on the ground assisting rescuers in digging through the rubble looking for survivors, Donovan said. The U.S. military assisted in the airlift of civilians, such as rescuers from Fairfax, Virginia, who released the video over the weekend of their rescue of a mother and her 9-month-old baby.

The wider operation is about logistics, helping to ensure that, for example, life-saving international aid does not get stuck at entry points, he said.

“That’s where things can go awry sometimes, isn’t it? You bring in too much material, and you don’t have the logistics behind it to then move (the aid) to the affected areas,” Donovan said.

The government of Venezuela has been criticised for its inaction in dispatching heavy machinery and search and rescue teams to the region sooner, leaving the people to fend for themselves with their own hands, shovels and ropes in the critical first days since the disaster.

State television on Saturday witnessed the use of heavy construction machinery to crush brick and cement in some areas. Foreign rescuers had taken them out of the bodies, residents said.

Asked about frustrations inside Venezuela about the government’s response, Donovan was ​cautious but acknowledged Caracas ⁠was grappling with previous decades of poor leadership that had “basically ruined the infrastructure of the nation.”

Lack of medication, hospital personnel can add to frustrations, he said.

Donovan would not speculate on the length of the U.S. military’s mission in Venezuela, deferring to the U.S. State Department, which is running the U.S.-wide relief effort. But he said, the U.S. military wasn’t preparing for any “long-term mission on the ground” with troops deployed on the ground to help with relief operations.

“It’s not discussed anymore about staying,” Donovan said. “This is our approach (relief operations). We leave when we are finished.”

However, Donovan said he hoped U.S. operations would help foster better U.S.-military relations with Venezuela.

“If then, this becomes a beginning to a better mil-to-mil relationship, yes, we’re ready to go forward from there.”