Venezuela said the U.S. has unilaterally suspended its migrant repatriation flights and seeks to “undermine the sovereignty of its airspace,” after President Donald Trump posted on social media that the country’s airspace should be considered as “closed in its entirety.”
In a statement released Saturday — in response to the message posted earlier by Mr. Trump — Venezuela’s government demanded “unrestricted respect” for its airspace. “Such statements constitute a hostile, unilateral, and arbitrary act, incompatible with the most basic principles of international law, and are part of a permanent policy of aggression against our country,” the Venezuelan government release read in part.
Mr. Trump had said in a Truth Social post that all airlines, pilots, drug dealers, and human traffickers should consider the airspace “above and surrounding” the South American nation as “closed in its entirety” — an assertion that appeared to signal further U.S. pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
The White House did not respond to questions about Mr. Trump’s post, and it was unclear whether he was announcing a new policy or simply reinforcing the messaging around his campaign against Maduro, which has involved multiple strikes in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean on small boats accused of ferrying drugs as well as a buildup of naval forces in the region.
More than 80 people have been killed in such strikes since early September.
International airlines last week began to cancel flights to Venezuela after the Federal Aviation Administration told pilots to be cautious flying around the country because of heightened military activity. Three U.S. airlines that regularly fly over Venezuela airspace confirmed to CBS News earlier this month that they had not been using the country’s airspace for a while.
The FAA’s jurisdiction is generally limited to the United States and its territories. The agency does routinely warn pilots about the dangers of flying over areas with ongoing conflicts or military activity around the globe, as it did earlier this month with Venezuela. The agency, which works with other countries and the International Civil Aviation Organization on international issues, urged civilian aircraft in Venezuelan airspace to “exercise caution” due to the “worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around Venezuela.”
“No authority outside the Venezuelan institutionality has the power to interfere, block or condition the use of national airspace,” the Venezuelan government said in its statement Saturday, citing ICAO rules. It also said that flights that were part of a plan to repatriate Venezuelan migrants had been “unilaterally suspended” as a result of U.S. actions.
The FAA and ICAO did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday.
The Trump administration has sought to ratchet up pressure on Maduro. The U.S. government does not view Maduro as the legitimate leader of the oil-rich but increasingly impoverished South American nation and he faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S.
U.S. forces have conducted bomber flights near Venezuela and the USS Gerald R. Ford, America’s most advanced aircraft carrier, was sent to the area. The Ford rounds off the largest buildup of U.S. firepower in the region in generations. With the aircraft carrier’s arrival, the “Operation Southern Spear” mission includes nearly a dozen Navy ships and about 12,000 sailors and Marines.
There are bipartisan calls for greater oversight of the U.S. strikes against vessels in the region after The Washington Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for all crew members to be killed as part of the Sept. 2 attack on suspected drug smugglers.
Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and its top Democrat, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, said in a joint statement late Friday that the committee “will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.”
Mr. Trump’s team has weighed both military and nonmilitary options with Venezuela, including covert action by the CIA authorized last month by the president.
Mr. Trump has publicly floated the idea of talking to Maduro. The New York Times reported Friday that Mr. Trump and Maduro had spoken. The White House declined to answer questions about the conversation.
