United States President Donald Trump has said the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela is to be closed “in its entirety”, as tensions between the countries escalate.
There was no immediate response by Venezuela to Trump’s social media post on Saturday.
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“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump’s post comes amid weeks of escalating rhetoric by senior US officials against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his government.
While the Trump administration has said it is targeting Venezuela as part of a push to combat drug trafficking, experts and human rights observers have warned that Washington appears to be laying the groundwork for an attempt to unlawfully remove Maduro from power.
The US has deployed an aircraft carrier to the Caribbean and carried out a series of deadly bombings on vessels it accused of being involved in drug trafficking, killing dozens of people in what United Nations experts have described as extrajudicial killings.
Earlier this week, Trump also warned that he would start targeting Venezuelan drug trafficking “by land” soon.
During a speech broadcast on national television on Thursday, Maduro said Venezuelans would not be intimidated.
The Venezuelan president had said the US “was increasing what he called ‘excuses and lies’ to try and justify an intervention in Venezuela, and that was before this announcement was made [on Saturday] by President Trump”, Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman explained.
Fear of attacks
Newman said the Trump administration has been “systematically increasing the pressure” on Maduro’s government over several months.
In August, Washington offered a $50m reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest, doubling a previous sum.
And earlier this week, the US announced it was designating the so-called “Cartel de los Soles”, which it asserts is linked to Maduro, as a “terrorist” organisation.
Venezuelans began using the term Cartel de los Soles in the 1990s to refer to high-ranking military officers who had grown rich from drug-running.
At the same time, there have been reports that the US president has spoken with his Venezuelan counterpart.
On Friday, The New York Times reported that Trump spoke with Maduro last week and discussed a possible meeting between the two leaders in the US.
Citing multiple people with knowledge of the matter, the newspaper said there were no plans at the moment for such a meeting, which, if it were to take place, would be the first-ever encounter between Maduro and a US president.
Trump is “going hot and cold” vis-a-vis Venezuela, said Newman, Al Jazeera’s Latin America editor.
She added that while Trump’s statement on Saturday is “an escalation … on paper”, it remains to be seen whether Washington will attack the country, “which is the fear being raised”.
“When you tell airlines not to go to Venezuela, when you say that the airspace has now been closed, you’re sending a very, very aggressive message. Whether this will play out is another matter altogether,” she said.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had warned airlines last week of a “potentially hazardous situation” in Venezuelan airspace due to a “worsening security situation and heightened military activity”.
Six airlines that account for much of the travel in South America then suspended flights to Venezuela.
That drew the ire of Caracas, which suspended the companies’ operating rights and accused them of “joining the actions of state terrorism promoted by the United States”.
‘Scorched earth’ policy
Charles Shapiro, a former US ambassador to Venezuela, said Trump’s announcement on Saturday “turns up the pressure on Maduro”
“Clearly, what the government of the United States [and] President Trump wants is for Maduro to leave office, and that would mean he’d have to leave the country,” Shapiro told Al Jazeera.
He added that while the Trump administration’s claims that its actions are part of a push to stem drug trafficking to the US, the real intention is to remove Maduro.
Meanwhile, Francisco Rodriguez, a senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a US-based think tank, warned of the effects that Trump’s policies will have on the citizens of Venezuela.
Saturday’s announcement reflects a “scorched earth” policy towards the country, which for years has been grappling with widespread poverty, unemployment and mass outward migration, Rodriguez wrote on X.
“A country subject to air isolation is a country where medicine and essential supplies cannot enter, and whose citizens cannot travel even for emergency reasons,” he said, adding that the Venezuelan people are not “chess pieces”.
