US President Donald Trump has warned that the airspace over and near Venezuela should be considered closed, the latest escalation in a standoff with left-wing leader Nicolas Maduro.
“To all airlines, pilots, drug dealers and human traffickers,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network on Saturday, “please consider the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela closed in its entirety.”
The American president did not elaborate further.
Venezuela labeled the warning a “colonialist threat” and called it the latest “extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people.”
Major military deployment
Trump’s administration is increasing pressure on Venezuela, with a major military deployment in the Caribbean, including the world’s largest aircraft carrier.
The US says the goal is to curb drug trafficking, but Venezuela insists regime change is the ultimate goal.
US forces have carried out attacks on more than 20 suspected Venezuelan drug smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since early September, killing at least 83 people.
Washington has not yet released evidence that the ships it targeted were used to smuggle drugs or posed a threat to the United States. Experts say the attacks amount to extrajudicial killings, even if they target known traffickers.
Further raising the stakes, Trump warned earlier this week that efforts to halt Venezuela’s drug trafficking “overland” would begin “very soon.”
Air traffic disruptions in Venezuela
According to aircraft tracking websites, constant US fighter jet activity has been recorded in recent days just a few dozen kilometers off the Venezuelan coast.
The Dominican Republic, Venezuela’s neighbor, also this week allowed the United States to use airport facilities as part of its deployment, while the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, located just a few miles from Venezuela, recently hosted U.S. Marine Corps exercises.
The tensions have now led to major disruptions in air traffic to and from Venezuela.
US aviation authorities last week urged civilian aircraft operating in Venezuelan airspace to “exercise caution” due to the “deteriorating security situation and increased military activity in or around Venezuela.”
That warning had suspended flights to Venezuela for six airlines, which account for a large part of the travel in South America.
The move infuriated Caracas and prompted it to ban the companies – Spain’s Iberia, Portugal’s TAP, Colombia’s Avianca, Chile’s and Brazil’s LATAM, Brazil’s GOL and Turkish Airlines – for “joining the actions of state terrorism promoted by the US government.”
Left-wing Maduro, whose re-election last year was widely dismissed as fraudulent by the international community, believes the operation is secretly aimed at overthrowing him.
He has responded defiantly by organizing military exercises and mass rallies aimed at projecting strength and support among the population.
The New York Times reported Friday that Trump and Maduro spoke by phone last week and discussed a possible meeting in the United States.
The report on the call between Trump and Maduro came a day after the US president said efforts to halt Venezuela’s land-based drug trade were imminent, further raising tensions with Caracas.
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