President Donald Trump said Saturday morning that Venezuela’s airspace should be considered “closed” as he weighs military action against the South American nation.
“To all airlines, pilots, drug traffickers and human traffickers, please consider that AIRSPACE OVER AND AROUND VENEZUELA IS COMPLETELY CLOSED,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
There was no immediate response from Venezuela, which maintains authority over its own airspace, to the publication. Flight tracking data appeared to show a handful of planes still flying over the country on Saturday morning.
Several airlines began diverting flights out of Venezuelan airspace earlier this month, and the US Federal Aviation Administration issued a warning about “increased military activity” in the area.
On Wednesday, Venezuela’s civil aviation authority stripped takeoff and landing rights from six commercial airlines, accusing them of “joining the actions of state terrorism promoted by the United States government and unilaterally suspending commercial air operations.”
On Thursday, Trump said the United States could “very soon” begin attacking suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers on land, expanding operations that until now have focused on vessels in the Caribbean Sea.
In his Thanksgiving remarks to U.S. troops around the world, Trump thanked the Air Force’s 7th Bombardment Wing for its work to “deter Venezuelan drug traffickers” and said that “about 85% of them have been detained by sea… and we will begin apprehending them by land.”
“Also, the land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon,” the president added, speaking from his Mar-a-Lago estate.
For months, the president has stepped up the US military presence in the region, increasing pressure on Venezuela with attacks on suspected drug trafficking ships since early September. The military has carried out nearly two dozen known attacks on vessels they said were carrying drugs, killing at least 82 people.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, a major aircraft carrier, arrived in the Caribbean last week, completing a buildup of U.S. military forces in the region not seen in decades.
Last week, the United States also designated the Cartel of the Suns, a group that Washington says is led by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, as a foreign terrorist organization.
Maduro has denied having ties to drug trafficking and has accused the United States of “manufacturing” a war against him.
Katherine Doyle contributed.
