The United States Southern Command announced this Saturday the deployment of specialized urban search and rescue dogs from the Miami-Dade Fire Department to Venezuela, aboard a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft of the U.S. Air Force, as part of the rescue operations following the devastating earthquakes on June 24.
According to the announcement by Southern Command on social media, the elite dogs and their handlers are supporting the "U.S. government rescue operations led by the State Department" following the "catastrophic earthquakes of June 24, 2026."
The animals belong to the Florida Task Force 1 (FLTF1), a Type I urban search and rescue unit officially activated on June 26 by the Department of State. The unit consists of 80 specialists in 19 functional areas and six rescue dog teams.
The C-17 Globemaster III departed from Dover Air Force Base carrying 79 rescuers, six K-9 dogs, and approximately 70,000 pounds of specialized equipment. Florida Task Force 1 is self-sufficient in disaster zones and has a proven track record of international missions in Haiti, Turkey, Colombia, and Venezuela itself, where it intervened after the Cariaco earthquake in 1997.
The earthquakes that prompted the deployment occurred on Tuesday at 6:04 PM local time, when two quakes with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5—just 39 seconds apart—shook the northern part of the country, with epicenters in the state of Yaracuy. This "seismic doublet" is considered the most powerful recorded in Venezuela since 1900.
The official toll at the close of this Saturday rose to 1,430 dead, over 3,360 injured, and more than 54,000 missing. The UN estimated that 6.76 million people were affected, while the U.S. Geological Survey issued a Red Alert and projected a final death toll of between 10,000 and 100,000 victims.
The canine deployment is part of a larger humanitarian operation led by Washington, which includes rescue teams from Fairfax County (Virginia) and Los Angeles, the USS Fort Lauderdale and USS Billings vessels, Starlink terminals, and a financial commitment of 150 million dollars authorized by President Donald Trump.
As part of the response, the U.S. temporarily suspended economic sanctions against Venezuela for four months—until October 23, 2026—to facilitate relief operations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reached out to the acting president Delcy Rodríguez to offer support and condolences.
At least 17 countries sent 25 rescue teams, with nearly 1,000 personnel deployed in Venezuelan territory, in what is shaping up to be the largest international response to a natural disaster in the recent history of the country.
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