United States President Donald Trump warned this Saturday that the airspace over and around Venezuela should be considered completely closed, in the context of an escalating confrontation with leftist president Nicolás Maduro. “To all airlines, pilots, drug traffickers and human traffickers, please consider that the airspace over and around Venezuela is closed in its entirety,” Trump wrote on his social network Truth Social, without giving further details.
Venezuela denounced the warning by the U.S. president as a “colonialist threat” to its sovereignty. “Venezuela denounces and condemns the colonialist threat that seeks to affect the sovereignty of its airspace, (…) a new extravagant, illegal and unjustified act of aggression against the people of Venezuela,” said a statement released by Foreign Minister Yván Gil.
Caracas also warned that “through this action, the United States government has unilaterally suspended flights of Venezuelan migrants that had been regularly carried out as part of the repatriation of Venezuelans.” Some 75 flights have been carried out this year, with at least 13,956 Venezuelans deported from the United States.
Meanwhile, the Venezuelan armed forces held coastal exercises this Saturday aimed at “detecting any enemy action” against the territory, said one of the commanders in videos broadcast by state channel VTV, which showed images of mobilized armed soldiers, rocket launchers and anti-aircraft batteries.
Since early September, the Trump administration has increased pressure on Venezuela, with a major military deployment in the Caribbean that includes the world’s largest aircraft carrier. The U.S. president says his goal is to stop drug trafficking from the South American country, but Caracas insists he is seeking regime change.
U.S. forces have killed at least 83 people in more than 20 attacks on alleged narco-boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific. Washington has not provided any evidence that those vessels were being used to transport drugs or posed a threat to the United States.
By land
To increase pressure, Trump warned earlier this week that efforts to curb Venezuelan drug trafficking “by land” would begin “very soon.” “As a reminder, only Congress has the power to declare war,” said Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right figure who broke with her mentor Trump and announced she will resign from the House of Representatives.
“President Trump’s reckless actions toward Venezuela are bringing the United States ever closer to another costly war overseas,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned Saturday night. In recent days, there has been constant activity by U.S. fighter jets just a few dozen kilometers off the Venezuelan coast, according to aircraft tracking websites.
The Dominican Republic, Venezuela’s neighbor, authorized the United States this week to use airport facilities as part of its deployment, while nearby Trinidad and Tobago recently hosted exercises by the U.S. Marine Corps.
Suspension of flights
U.S. aviation authorities last week urged civilian aircraft operating in Venezuelan airspace to “exercise caution” due to the “deteriorating security situation and intensified military activity in or around Venezuela.” Trump’s warning led to the suspension of flights to and from Venezuela by six airlines that account for a large share of South American traffic.
The measure infuriated Caracas. Venezuela’s civil aviation authority revoked operating permits in the country for Spain’s Iberia, Portugal’s TAP, Colombia’s Avianca, the Colombian subsidiary of Chilean-Brazilian Latam, Brazil’s GOL and Turkey’s Turkish Airlines.
The Maduro government accuses the airlines of “joining the acts of state terrorism promoted by the government of the United States by unilaterally suspending their commercial air operations.” At Maiquetía Airport, Venezuela’s main air terminal, journalists observed activity by both domestic and international aircraft on the runway Saturday.
The New York Times reported Friday that Trump and Maduro held a phone conversation last week in which they discussed a possible meeting in the United States. News of the call between Trump and Maduro came a day after the U.S. president said that efforts to stop Venezuelan drug trafficking by land were imminent, further ratcheting up tensions with Caracas.
