Donald Trump has told all airlines to consider the skies above and surrounding Venezuela closed, as the threat of US air strikes draws closer.
In an early-morning social media post from Palm Beach, the US president wrote: “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.”
The US does not have the authority to shut another country’s airspace, but the post is likely to worry airlines and cause travel uncertainty in Venezuela.
And while Mr Trump’s statement could be a ruse to cause domestic unrest, it could also be the precursor to air strikes.
Since September, the Trump administration has been massing the most significant US military force in the region for generations, and conducting deadly strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels in international waters.
The US campaign against alleged “narcoboats” it claims are smuggling drugs to American shores has already claimed 82 lives.
Mr Trump has claimed sweeping wartime powers to destroy the boats, alleging the US is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels because each of the boats carries enough drugs to kill 25,000 Americans.
On Thursday, he signalled he would further escalate his campaign against drug smugglers when he announced plans to launch operations on land “very soon”.
In his Thanksgiving remarks to US troops around the world, the president thanked the US air force for deterring “Venezuelan drug traffickers”, claiming smuggling was down by 85 per cent at sea. “We’ll be starting to stop them by land,” he added, apparently suggesting strikes on Venezuelan soil.
Mr Trump has also signalled he is open to a diplomatic resolution with Nicolas Maduro, his Venezuelan counterpart, despite claiming he is head of the Cartel de los Soles drug gang and doubling the bounty on his head to $50m (£38m).
Mr Maduro, who has clung to power since 2013 despite a widely disputed election last year, has argued that Mr Trump is plotting to oust him, and has called on Venezuelans and the military to resist any such attempt.
Former regime officials told The Telegraph last week that Mr Maduro fears for his life, believing he will be killed either in a US strike or during a coup orchestrated from within his inner circle.
