US President Donald Trump has said that Venezuela’s airspace should be considered ‘closed’ as Washington intensifies pressure on President Nicolas Maduro.
President Trump, in his Truth Social post, called for an aerial blockade to ‘airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers,’ rather than to President Maduro.
Venezuela’s government said it ‘forcefully rejects’ Trump’s claim about closing the airspace and that it was a colonial threat intended to undermine the country’s territorial integrity, aeronautical security and full sovereignty.
The Foreign Ministry said such declarations constitute a hostile, unilateral and arbitrary act.
A number of airlines began rerouting flights away from Venezuela’s airspace earlier this month, and the US Federal Aviation Administration has issued a warning of ‘heightened military activity’ in the area.
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Venezuela’s communications ministry, which handles all press inquiries for the government, did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Trump’s post.
David Deptula, a retired lieutenant general who commanded a no-fly zone over northern Iraq in 1998 and 1999, said Trump’s announcement raises more questions than it answers.
Imposing a no-fly zone over Venezuela could require significant resources and planning, depending on the goals of the airspace closure, he said.
“The devil’s in the details,” Deptula said. The Trump administration has been weighing Venezuela-related options to combat what it has portrayed as Maduro’s role in supplying illegal drugs that have killed Americans.
The socialist Venezuelan president has denied having any links to the illegal drug trade.
US military is poised for a new phase of operations after a massive military buildup in the Caribbean and nearly three months of strikes on suspected drug boats off Venezuela’s coast.
Trump has also authorized covert CIA operations in the South American country.
Maduro, in power since 2013, has contended that Trump is seeking to oust him and that Venezuelan citizens and the military will resist any such attempt.
Trump told military service members earlier this week that the U.S. would “very soon” begin land operations to stop suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers.
The streets of Caracas were largely quiet on Saturday morning, though some people braved rain to go shopping.
Maduro and high-ranking officials in his government, some combination of whom appear almost daily on state television, have decried U.S. imperialism in their recent comments.
But do not single out Trump by name, as the Venezuelan government may be trying to de-escalate tensions, according to security and diplomatic sources.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had previously been the focus of Venezuelan government ire, but even references to him have decreased in recent weeks.
The U.S. boat bombings have led to stepped-up surveillance by authorities in the remote northeastern state of Sucre, with increased patrols by security agencies and ruling-party supporters stoking fear among locals, four residents and one recent visitor said.
GPS signals in Venezuela have also been affected in recent weeks amid the U.S. buildup.