President Donald Trump on Saturday said that Venezuela‘s airspace was now “CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” a major escalation in tensions with Venezuela.
In a Truth Social post on Saturday morning, the president issued a warning to anyone who could be using the airspace over and around Venezuela.
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump said, signing off with his name.
He considered the post important enough that he repeated it in a rare post on his X account.
Trump’s announcement is the first public signal that a no-fly zone has been imposed over Venezuela. As of early Saturday morning, U.S. Southern Command and the Department of War hadn’t released a statement confirming the imposition.
Flight tracking data showed almost no flights above Venezuela Saturday morning, with the handful of flights primarily private planes.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued an advisory last week warning about “potential risk to aircraft at all altitudes” because of the “worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around Venezuela.”
On Friday evening, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ramped up his rhetoric in the U.S. fight against Venezuelan drug cartels, defending lethal strikes that have killed dozens of drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea.
“The Biden administration preferred the kid gloves approach, allowing millions of people — including dangerous cartels and unvetted Afghans — to flood our communities with drugs and violence. The Trump administration has sealed the border and gone on offense against narco-terrorists. Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them,” he said in a post on X.
US FORMALLY DESIGNATES CARTEL LINKED TO MADURO AS FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION
“Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict—and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command,” he added.
Earlier in the week, the U.S. designated the Venezuela-based drug cartel “Cartel de los Soles” as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The U.S. has repeatedly drawn links between the cartel and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, meaning the designation widens the use of military options against the country.
