What did Trump say?
“To all airlines, pilots, drug dealers and human smugglers, please consider a complete closure of the airspace over and around Venezuela,” Trump said in a post on his Truth social platform.
The US President did not elaborate.
But his message comes after the US aviation regulator warned major airlines of a “potentially hazardous situation” when flying over Venezuela, due to the “poor security situation and increased military activity in or around the country.”
The Trump administration has opened a front against Maduro’s Venezuela.
Trump’s warning comes as his administration steps up pressure on Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro, launching a major military deployment to the Caribbean using the world’s largest aircraft carrier.
Washington says the military activities are meant to curb drug trafficking. But Maduro says the Trump administration is demanding regime change.
Since the beginning of September, US forces have attacked more than 20 Venezuelan ships in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, which Washington alleges were used for drug trafficking without providing evidence. More than 80 people were killed in the attacks.
On Thursday, Trump warned that a campaign to curb drug trafficking “through land” in Venezuela would begin “very soon.”
Edited by: Dmytro Lyubenko
<a href