Donald Trump says Venezuelan airspace is closed

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Donald Trump said on Saturday that Venezuela’s airspace should be considered closed, as the United States considers launching strikes inside the country.

“To all airlines, pilots, drug dealers, and human traffickers, please consider the airspace over Venezuela and surrounding areas completely closed,” Trump wrote in a post on his platform, Truth Social.

Trump indicated on Thursday that Washington would soon begin striking alleged drug traffickers on Venezuelan soil.

“We’re going to start stopping them by land, too,” he told US forces from his Mar-a-Lago resort over the Thanksgiving holiday. “The ground is easier but this will start very soon.”

He was addressing soldiers aboard the USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship in the Caribbean Sea as part of the largest U.S. naval buildup in those waters since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

Last week, the US Federal Aviation Administration warned airlines to “exercise caution” when flying in Venezuelan airspace “due to the deteriorating security situation and increased military activity in and around Venezuela.” The Federal Aviation Administration said there is a danger to aircraft at all altitudes, including takeoff and landing.

Earlier this week, Venezuela canceled the operating rights of six major airlines, including Iberia Airlines and Turkish Airlines, after they heeded Western warnings and grounded their routes following the military buildup of US forces in the region.

The Venezuelan Civil Aviation Authority also canceled the rights of the airlines LATAM, TAP, Avianca and GOL, accusing the airlines of participating in “acts of state terrorism promoted by the United States.”

The United States has deployed dozens of warships — including its largest and most advanced aircraft carrier — more than 14,000 troops, combat aircraft, a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, and a special operations ship, among other military assets, to the region since late August.

This military buildup is widely seen as an attempt to force Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, whom the United States has designated a terrorist, from power.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a statement in response to Trump’s statements that “such statements constitute a hostile, unilateral and arbitrary act.” “Venezuela will not receive orders, threats or interference from any foreign power.”

The State Department also said Washington “unilaterally suspended” migrant deportation flights from the United States to Venezuela, which returned 13,956 Venezuelans.

Since September, Washington has carried out at least 21 strikes as part of a military campaign against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing 83 people. Trump and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pledged to continue those strikes.

Hegseth, who made a surprise visit to troops on two warships in the region on Thanksgiving, defended the strikes. The attacks have raised concerns among Republican and Democratic lawmakers, human rights experts and critics that military operations are illegal under domestic and international law.

“The stated intent is to stop deadly drugs, destroy drug boats and kill drug terrorists,” Hegseth said on Friday. “Our current operations in the Caribbean are legal under US and international law.”

The United States on Monday designated the Cartel de los Soles, a drug cartel it claims is led by Maduro and high-ranking officials in his regime, as a foreign terrorist organization. This classification may expand the Trump administration’s legal justification for escalating its military actions in the region.

Trump said Tuesday that he “may talk” with Maduro, and that “we can do things the easy way, that’s OK. And if we have to do it the hard way, that’s OK, too… I’m not going to tell you what the point is.”

The New York Times reported on Friday that a phone call took place between the two leaders late last week.

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, pointed out that only congress has the authority to authorize war, and it did not do so.

He added: “President Trump’s reckless actions toward Venezuela are pushing America closer and closer to another costly foreign war.”

Additional reporting by Joe Daniels in Bogotá