Venezuela has reacted angrily to US President Donald Trump’s statement that the airspace around the country should be considered closed.
The country’s foreign ministry called Trump’s comments “another extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people”.
The US does not have legal authority to close another country’s airspace and the Venezuelan statement accused Trump of making a “colonialist threat”.
The US has built its military presence in the area and carried out at least 21 strikes on boats it says were carrying drugs, killing more than 80. It has not provided evidence and Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro says the US moves are an attempt to oust him.
Trump wrote on 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.”
The White House did not immediately respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
With Trump ratcheting up his threats, some Democratic and Republican members of the US Congress have expressed anger that he has not sought legislative approval.
“Trump’s reckless actions towards Venezuela are pushing America closer and closer to another costly foreign war,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer posted on X on Sunday.
“Under our constitution, Congress has the sole power to declare war.”
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, until recently a close Trump ally, said: “Reminder, Congress has the sole power to declare war.”
Trump’s comments come just days after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warned airlines of “heightened military activity in and around Venezuela”, leading to several major airlines suspending flights there. Caracas then rescinded their take-off and landing rights.
Venezuela’s foreign ministry urged “the international community, the sovereign governments of the world, the UN, and the relevant multilateral organisations to firmly reject this immoral act of aggression”, in a statement on Saturday.
The same day, Venezuela’s military conducted exercises along coastal areas, with state TV showing anti-aircraft weapons and other artillery being manoeuvred.
The US has deployed the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, and about 15,000 troops to within striking distance of Venezuela.
It has insisted that the deployment – the largest by the US in the region since it invaded Panama in 1989 – is to combat drug trafficking.
Trump warned on Thursday that US efforts to halt Venezuelan drug trafficking “by land” would begin “very soon”.
The Venezuelan government believes the aim of the US is to depose the left-wing Maduro, whose re-election last year was denounced by the Venezuelan opposition and many nations as rigged.
Fellow left-wing President Gustavo Petro of Colombia – who has also faced US sanctions – has said he believed the US was using “violence to dominate” Latin America, though other leaders in the region have welcomed Trump’s stance.
The US has also designated Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns – a group it alleges is headed by Maduro – as a foreign terrorist organisation.
Labelling an organisation as a terrorist group gives US law enforcement and military agencies broader powers to target and dismantle it.
Venezuela’s foreign ministry has “categorically, firmly, and absolutely rejected” the designation.
