CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela has issued a strong condemnation of a statement by US President Donald Trump declaring the country’s airspace closed, escalating a tense military and diplomatic confrontation.
The Venezuelan foreign ministry denounced Trump’s action as “another extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people.”
The international dispute comes as the US has significantly built up its military presence in the region under the guise of combating drug trafficking, an action Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has repeatedly claimed is an attempt to depose him.
Trump’s statement and congressional outcry
President Trump made the declaration on his social media platform, Truth Social:
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.”
Venezuela’s foreign ministry immediately hit back, accusing Trump of making a “colonialist threat,” asserting that the US holds no legal authority to close another sovereign nation’s airspace.
The comments drew sharp criticism within the US itself, with both Democratic and Republican lawmakers expressing anger that the President had bypassed the legislature.
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer posted on X on Sunday: “Trump’s reckless actions towards Venezuela are pushing America closer and closer to another costly foreign war.”
He added a constitutional reminder: “Under our constitution, Congress has the sole power to declare war.” Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene echoed the sentiment, stating: “Reminder, Congress has the sole power to declare war.”
Heightened military activity and diplomatic pushback
Trump’s public statement followed a recent warning from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to airlines regarding “heightened military activity in and around Venezuela.”
This led several major airlines to suspend flights, prompting Caracas to rescind their take-off and landing rights.
In response to the aggressive posturing, Venezuela’s military conducted exercises along its coastal areas on Saturday, with state television showing the maneuvering of anti-aircraft weapons and other artillery.
The US has deployed the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, and approximately 15,000 troops to the region, the largest US military deployment there since the 1989 invasion of Panama.
The US maintains that the deployment is strictly to combat drug trafficking, a claim Trump reinforced by warning on Thursday that US efforts to halt trafficking “by land” would begin “very soon.”
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Venezuela’s government strongly believes the true aim is to depose the left-wing Maduro, whose re-election was widely denounced as rigged.
Left-wing Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who has also faced US sanctions, stated his belief that the US was using “violence to dominate” Latin America.
Adding to the tension, the US has designated the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), a group the US alleges is headed by Maduro himself, as a foreign terrorist organization, a designation that grants broader powers for US military and law enforcement agencies to target it.
Venezuela’s foreign ministry has “categorically, firmly, and absolutely rejected” the designation.
