Air Mobility Command Airmen acted quickly and decisively to deliver rapid global mobility in support of a President of the United States-directed humanitarian mission to Venezuelan refugees in dire need. (Video production by 2nd AVS)
Transcript
We’ve demonstrated resolve, we’ve demonstrated solidarity with the government of Columbia, and we’ve demonstrated capability, and that’s what the US Air Force Air Mobility Command are known for.
The week before the operation, we had the president, on national television telling the world that the US was gonna support the people of Venezuela.
We will stand with the Venezuelan people, every single day until they are finally free from this horrible and brutal oppression.
So, we were there to deliver America’s strategic message when tensions were at its highest. We were also there to stand with the people of Venezuela, and show strength against the misuse of power.
In this particular situation, this was a high-visibility mission. There was a lot of tension that was going on in that area of the world. We always said Venezuela, Mr. Guaido, who was recognized by some as the president of Venezuela, was challenging Mr. Maduro, who still felt that he was in charge, and there were violent clashes.
So the mission was a high-stake, because it was a humanitarian mission, and when you think humanitarian, most of the time you think you’re going to a safer place, but in this case, our humanitarian mission, there was a high threat from Venezuela.
So SOUTHCOM has the lead since it was their AOR, and in planning on how we were going to get food down into the region, Columbia was a permissible environment, so that was the next best option, but there was a couple different locations that we probably could have possible used.
There was a considerable amount of refugees moving out of Venezuela into Columbia. There are historical long-standing tensions between Columbia and Venezuela, so with the combination of all those factors, provided the need for US Air Force Air Mobility Command crews to bring in humanitarian assistance and relief to the air corridor in the eastern side of Columbia, near Venezuela, amounted to a pretty significant situation.
This was an information campaign, a strategic message campaign, but we were just used as a support mechanism to enable that capability. It was the message that the president asked that we were gonna support the forces of Venezuela, and that we had the capability to actually get that down there rapidly in a short period of time, and to provide that aid. That became a no-fail mission.
We’re proud of the fact that we’re mission-backers. That’s exactly what those crews do back there, they dug in, fought the mission, gave us the wings necessary to get the job done, made our country proud, and made our command proud. So, well done.