Press Briefing with John Barrett, Chargé d’Affaires, U.S. Embassy Caracas and General Francis Donovan, Commander, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)

MODERATOR: Good morning and welcome. I am Natalia Molano, Director of the U.S. Department of State's Miami Media Hub. This press briefing will be conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation in Spanish.

Please find the globe icon on the lower menu ribbon of your screen to select your preferred language.

(In Spanish.)

We are privileged today to have Chargé d'Affaires John Barrett at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela; and General Francis Donovan, Commander of the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, Florida. They will be discussing the Trump Administration's robust and rapid delivery of humanitarian assistance for the Venezuelan people following the devastating earthquakes in their nation on June 24, 2026.

The virtual press conference is on the record, attributable by name to each respective official. We will start with opening remarks and then I will moderate questions from journalists.

Chargé d'Affaires John Barrett, you may begin your remarks.

MR BARRETT: Thank you, Natalia, and good morning, everyone. Thank you all for attending. When we spoke, last week Venezuela was still in the immediate aftermath of the devastating June 24 earthquakes. Search and rescue teams were working around the clock and communities were struggling to assess the scale of the destruction. Today, almost two weeks later, we can continue to report real progress.

Under President Trump's leadership the United States has led the largest international earthquake response in Venezuela's modern history. What began as an urgent, life-saving operation is now transitioning into a sustained humanitarian relief and recovery effort. Our four American urban search and rescue teams have completed their mission and returned home to Fairfax, Virginia, Los Angeles, California, and the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County, Florida.

We are deeply grateful for their service. These highly skilled men and women helped save six lives and brought hope to countless families during Venezuela's darkest hours. America's commitment to Venezuela is clear. The Department of State's Disaster Assistance Response Team, DART, remains on the ground working alongside partners to deliver food, water, medical care, shelter, and other critical assistance to affected communities.

I also want to recognize the extraordinary contributions of our colleagues at the Department of War. Their airlift, logistics, engineering, and transportation capabilities have been indispensable to this effort. Thank you, General Donovan, for joining us today, and please convey our gratitude to Major General Jarrard and your entire team supporting this humanitarian response.

Our results, they're significant. With support from the United States and other humanitarian donors, the United Nations World Food Program has reached more than 18,000 people affected by the earthquakes with food assistance. Well over a million pounds of relief supplies have already been delivered to communities across Venezuela, and additional shipments continue to arrive every day.

To date, total U.S. humanitarian assistance related to this response exceeds $310 million. But recovery is about more than emergency aid. As immediate needs are addressed, we are increasingly focused on helping communities rebuild - restoring critical infrastructure, supporting economic recovery, and ensuring Venezuelan families have the tools they need to recover and move forward. Recovery will take time, but the United States is committed to being a reliable partner throughout that process.

The bottom line is simple: The Venezuelan people are not facing this challenge alone. Our message remains the same today as it was on the first day of this tragedy: (Via interpreter) We were with you at the beginning of this and we continue to be with you, and we will continue to be with you until tomorrow.

(In English) We are with Venezuela today and we will be with you tomorrow. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much. General Francis Donovan, you may begin your remarks.

GENERAL DONOVAN: Hey, thank you very much, and good morning. And for the chargé d'affaires John Barrett, thank you very much for your comments. And really seeing you yesterday on the ground in Venezuela, remarkable to see the impacts of your leadership and the efforts of our Department of State teammates on the ground that have the sustained relationship with the Venezuelan people, and to see the impact working side by side with the Department of War and the different agencies and entities on the ground - remarkable. So, thank you for your leadership and the time we spent together yesterday.

Really being on the ground yesterday only for a short period of time - it was my third trip to Venezuela in the last five months. Remarkable to see the efforts by the American responders, whether that's civilians from our search and rescue teams as they wrapped up and were transitioning out of the country yesterday, to the continued efforts by our Department of War teammates on the land and the air and sea - remarkable efforts. And really what struck me yesterday was that the positive attitude and the desire for these Americans to work alongside the Venezuelan people and Department of State teammates to really bring assistance, especially as we move out of this phase of the operation to really recovery and further relief operations.

And so, I wanted to just to really share with you all the impact that we're having on the ground is significant. There is a long way ahead, obviously, for any nation recovering from a disaster of this magnitude. But we'll be there in support and provide our rapid response capabilities until they're no longer requested, and we will then be prepared to pull our forces back and be prepared for the next response.

For U.S. Southern Command, helping nations - especially nations in our region - is what we do. We've done this really eight times since 2010. And so, we'll be prepared to respond throughout the Latin America, Central America, and the Caribbean. But for right now our focus, until we're no longer needed, is to provide airlift, logistics, transportation; assist in running the airport and seaport; and then heavy lift equipment, if we receive more of that to assist in the relief efforts, we'll be ready to move that; to really focus on what we've done so far and to expand that in accordance with what our State Department leadership needs and what the Venezuelan people need.

So, I could give you some numbers, and I will; I'm very proud of the effort so far. Specifically, our Air Force element, I - Simón Bolívar Airport itself, it's called the contingent - Contingency Response Element. They were literally on the ground within the first 24 hours. And what they were able to do is get the airfield open and operating at max capacity right away. And that's important when you're bringing relief supplies in. And so far, that Contingency Response Element, those Americans on the airfield, working really right now with their Venezuelan counterparts, have delivered more than 1.5 million pounds of cargo. And that's significant, because that cargo is offloaded and then transported directly to where it's needed. And that's key for the relief operation.

A couple things we've also established, just to share with you. The Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Center, that was established right there in Caracas with the Chargé d'Affaires and his team so we could bring the - all the elements together to work to solve this problem quickly, and respond to exactly where the need, the Venezuelan people needed the need the most. And I think that was key for us.

Now, about the same time, back here in our headquarters in Miami, we established the Combined Humanitarian Coordination Cell - 12 partner nations and five interagency groups working hard, 24/7, here in Miami, providing information down to the teams on the ground in Venezuela, using some of our high-tech collection, to include space capabilities, to ensure that we could see the environment and make sure we understood where the need was required, and provide that information to our teams on the ground so that we could make better decisions and then to deliver aid exactly where it was needed. And I think that directly saved lives.

So really that's the update I have. I wanted again to come back to thanking John for your leadership as the Chargé d'Affaires and your partnership as we all move forward together in support of the people of Venezuela. Thank you very much.

MODERATOR: Thank you both. We will now begin taking questions from journalists.

We will start with a question from Rafael Fuenmayor from Telemundo.

QUESTION: Hello, good morning. Thank you for doing this. Based on what you have seen on the ground, why do we still don't know the real death toll of this disaster? And based on that, is the U.S. assisting or planning to assist Venezuela with forensic resources to identify hundreds of the dead bodies?

MR BARRETT: Well, thank you Rafael. As you know, the government does report death counts on a daily basis, and they continue to refine those numbers, and I think we will continue to see those numbers rise over time, unfortunately, given the scale of this tragedy. We have also been assisting the Venezuelans in terms of storing and caring for the deceased remains that are being pulled out of the rubble, including with the provision of ten containers that have freezer capacity. The government reports that they have accounted and identified the vast majority of bodies received, but they're continuing to go through that process and, as I understand it, are collecting DNA, fingerprints, dental records from those bodies that they're in the process of still waiting to identify in coordination with family members.

MODERATOR: General, anything from you?

GENERAL DONOVAN: No. Rafael, thank you for the question. But I think the CDA answered that well. I don't have anything else. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Okay. Excellent. Thank you.

Our next question is from Jackeline Diaz. Go ahead Jackeline.

QUESTION: (Via interpreter) Hello. Good morning. If you could give in detail what is the priority of the distribution zones so that assistance be duplicated in this response effort?

MR BARRETT: Well, good morning, Jackeline. I believe your question had to do with more of the details of the distribution of relief aid that's coming into Venezuela. Here at the embassy, in coordination with the DOW and the DART team that's here on the ground, we track daily arrivals primarily that are coming through to the airport. And then we also track daily distributions to the Venezuelan communities in need. I can report that through yesterday, we have received, as the general mentioned, 1.5 million pounds of relief supplies. And a lot of that relief supplies, as it gets out, distributed to the Venezuelans in need, are in the form of various kinds of kits, from food kits, hygiene kits, water kits. It also includes dry food rations, even hot meals. And when you total up those kits and deliveries, we're talking about well over 60,000 deliveries. And many of those kits, by the way, extend for longer than a day. Some are packaged to care for a family of four for several days. And so, I wanted to share those numbers in terms of demonstrating some of that important aid and how it's getting distributed.

And Department of War has been just an excellent partner in terms of looking further afield for communities outside the most affected areas that also need assistance. And thanks to their airlift capacity and their - and previous to that, their capacity to - ability to identify these communities further afield has been extremely helpful in making sure that we are providing speedy and reliable assistance to the Venezuelans most in need.

GENERAL DONOVAN: And Jackeline, thank you for the question. And to follow on from Chargé d'Affaires thoughts is that what we'll do is we'll use our logistics and what we call command and control capability to be able to match the right conveyance - let's think of a helicopter or a truck or a landing craft on the ocean - to match the right platform to deliver that right amount of relief supplies to the right location at the right time. And that's what we - we assist with Department of State on that. As they track and as they coordinate and as they plan, we then follow up with our capabilities where - really well-equipped, self-sustaining, highly skilled, and really wholly committed U.S. personnel on the ground to match our capabilities, which is primarily logistics and command and control, how you run the operation. We match it with the Department of State's leadership and decision making through that DART concept that the Chargé d'Affaires talked about earlier to provide the best logistic support and relief to the Venezuelan people.

MODERATOR: Thank you. Now we will hear from Roberto Macedonio from NTN24. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you, Natalia. Well, I want to ask John Barrett about a picture in which he appears alongside Diosdado Cabello. This has caused some confusion as to whether Diosdado Cabello is or not a wanted enemy of the United States and whether the reward of his capture is still in effect, or whether the United States and the State Department have changed their positions regarding him. And I would also like to ask General Donovan whether the U.S. Southern Command is currently controlling Maiquetía airport and, if so, if there is an airspace restriction preventing María Corina Machado's possible return to Venezuela, or if she could technically land in the country. Thank you.

MR BARRETT: Well, thank you, Roberto. The U.S. State Department is 100 percent focused on this response, on the response to the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela, and in advancing the Trump Administration's three-phase plan for Venezuela, which remains intact. And that includes stabilization, economic recovery, reconciliation, and democratic transition. So, we will remain focused on advancing these efforts under President Trump's leadership, and we will continue to do everything we can to assist the Venezuelan people.

And I wanted to mention one thing from the previous question, because I think it's important in terms of to describe the scale of assistance that we're providing the Venezuelan people. We mentioned the 1.5 million pounds in aid that has arrived. That has arrived on 37 aircraft. Twenty-eight of those 37 are direct USG partners, mostly Department of War, and then another nine are flights from our humanitarian assistance partners that we have facilitated, again, thanks to the logistical - logistics framework that DOW has established here. Thank you.

GENERAL DONOVAN: Roberto, thanks for the question. Right now, U.S. Southern Command, our elements ashore there in Venezuela are not controlling the airport. What we're doing is we're assisting with air traffic control, which - ATC, which is ensuring that the safe landing and takeoff of aircraft and the safe management of the airspace around the airport is key. And the other piece we're providing is ground operations, which is that offloading and storage and then staging for onward movement of relief supplies. That's our focus at the airport. Thanks.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much. We have Patrick Markey now from AFP. Go ahead.

QUESTION: General Donovan, can you give us an estimation or a timeline for when the airport will be reopened for commercial flights?

GENERAL DONOVAN: Hey, Patrick. Thanks. I might push that one back to the Chargé d'Affaires because he has a better understanding of kind of what that timeline might be from a ground perspective.

MR BARRETT: Sure, yes. Thank you, Patrick and General Donovan. We are already in conversations, we have been in conversations with U.S. commercial airlines. As you know, American Airlines was the first U.S. airline to restart operations back in early - late April, early May, before the earthquake. And we're in touch, in communication with U.S. commercial carriers who are very interested in re-establishing operations. There is some work to do in terms of the infrastructure of - to support commercial operations at the airport.

We're also in communication with the FAA and the TSA, which are the two very relevant and essential U.S. Government agencies that would be involved in the startup of commercial flights. There are commercial flights to other cities, including international flights to Valencia, for example, that have already initiated or restarted. And we're very eager to see the same thing happen at the main Simón Bolivar International Airport. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Thank you. Now we have Julia Cobb.

QUESTION: Hello. Thank you so much for taking questions. This one is for the Chargé d'Affaires. You've praised the government response, saying that you have full confidence in their ability to handle the response to the earthquake, but that doesn't really jibe with what I'm sure every media organization on this call has seen on the ground in La Guaira, which especially in the first few days after the earthquake was a huge lack of formal government presence and continues now, especially for civilians who are trying to find the bodies of their loved ones. There is still a lack of official presence and help. So how do you square your praise for Delcy Rodríguez with what people are seeing on the ground?

MR BARRETT: Thank you, Julia. This has been a huge - as you know, a huge, massive U.S. Government response here on the ground, and our focus has been squarely on getting as much assistance out to the Venezuelan people as soon as possible. And the interim government, as I have said, has been fully compliant in terms of our requests to advance this massive humanitarian response. And again, we will continue to lead initiatives that mobilize U.S. and international response teams to reach those communities in need, and the government has been compliant with us in terms of ensuring, like I said, those more than 62,000 kits - from hygiene to hot meals to food kits - are being distributed with speed and with reliance out to the Venezuelans most in need. Thank you.

MODERATOR: All right. Now we are going to go with our last question, from Lourdes Ubieta.

QUESTION: Hello. Can you hear me?

MODERATOR: Yes. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Yes. Thank you. Good morning, and as a Venezuelan American myself, I want to thank very much - I want to thank you very much, gentleman, for everything that you are doing on the ground after this horrible situation that Venezuelans are facing.

So my question is: There are reports that alleged Venezuelan military personnel are stealing or diverting humanitarian aid intended for earthquake victims, as happened in other countries during similar disasters. Has the U.S. Government seen credible evidence that this is happening? And what safeguards are in place to ensure that American assistance reaches the people who need it rather than being intercepted by corrupt officials or security forces? Thank you.

MR BARRETT: Hi. Thank you, Lourdes, for that. Hey, I'm really proud of this strong network of U.S. assistance on the ground, and again, that includes this spectacularly impressive logistics framework established with our partners from the Department of War; our range of humanitarian assistance partners, from Samaritan Cross to Caritas, Catholic Relief Services; United Nations partners and many more; the DART team that's here. I'm very proud of this network. And I'm very proud to report that we are seeing a very efficient and speedy and reliable delivery of these - of the important U.S. assistance that's coming in, again, with over $310 million spent so far to date. I also want to also mention the really critical work of GEM and Samaritan's Purse, two other really vital partners in all of this.

And again, in my conversations and our eyes on the ground - and there's a lot of people on the ground looking at this - we follow up with every comment or every observation that we get, and I'm just really proud of this response and how effective it has been in terms of our success, our continuing success. And we plan to sustain this, by the way, into the future to be sure that this assistance continues to reliably meet the needs of the Venezuelan people in this time of crisis.

MODERATOR: Thank you.

General Donovan, any last word from you?

GENERAL DONOVAN: No. I think the chargé did a wonderful job answering that question and really highlighting the work that's on the ground. These are tough situations. I've responded to a number of these in my time in serving in the Marine Corps, and there's always - there's always friction, but the reality is I think the chargé did a great job on what is actually working well. And could always be improvements, yes, because it's a catastrophe, but the reality is remarkable - remarkable effort in support of the Venezuelan people, and I couldn't be more proud of our joint teammates that are on the ground, in the air, and on the sea supporting this effort. So, thank you.

MODERATOR: Well, thank you to our two speakers, Chargé Barrett and General Donovan, for their time, and to all the journalists who participated today. This concludes our briefing. An English audio recording and a transcript in English will be published on State.gov. In addition, there will be a translation to Spanish of that transcript and will also be available on state.gov on our translations pages. If you have any questions, you may always contact the Miami media hub at [email protected]. Goodbye, and until next time.

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