US President Donald Trump announced on his social network Truth Social that the airspace over Venezuela and the surrounding area will be completely closed.
“We are announcing to all airlines, pilots, drug dealers and human traffickers that the airspace over and around Venezuela is completely closed,” Trump wrote in the post.
The US Federal Aviation Administration issued a warning last week for civilian aircraft in Venezuelan airspace. They wrote about the danger of “increased military activity”. They called for increased caution in view of the “deteriorating security situation and increased military activity in and around Venezuela.”
In retaliation, Venezuela’s Civil Aviation Authority announced that it had banned several airlines from operating flights on its territory. The reason is that they stopped their activities after the warning from the United States. She accused these airlines of terrorism.
The US has previously sent warships to the waters of the region, including the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group.
They do not recognize the president
Trump accuses Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of supporting international drug crime. Washington also does not recognize Maduro’s election to the presidency and has offered a $50 million reward for information leading to his arrest. The US president said in a talk show that the US is not going to war with Venezuela. However, Trump subsequently noted that Maduro’s days in the presidency are numbered. “I would say that. I think so, yes,” the White House chief answered a question from the host of the 60 Minutes show.
At the same time, Maduro is accused of leading the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Sun). It is a designation of groups within the Venezuelan security forces that are said to be involved in cocaine trafficking. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that they want to classify the cartel as a foreign terrorist organization. Rubio repeats the so-far unsubstantiated claim that Maduro and other high-ranking officials “who have corrupted the Venezuelan military, intelligence services, legislature and judiciary” lead the cartel.
Maduro, on the other hand, claims that the United States is using the war on drugs as a pretext to force regime change in Venezuela in order to gain access to its oil. The US accuses him of the decline of the country and the leadership of a drug cartel that is supposed to try to get drugs into the United States. In Venezuela, they fear that the US is trying to change the regime in the country in this way.
US forces have been attacking ships in Caribbean waters since September, allegedly trying to stop smugglers. According to AFP, attacks on several vessels suspected of this activity have already claimed at least 83 lives in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean. However, the US has so far not released any concrete evidence that these vessels were actually used for drug smuggling. Several states and international organizations described the attacks as extrajudicial executions.
