{"id":166707,"date":"2025-11-29T23:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T23:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/166707\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T23:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T23:06:08","slug":"venezuela-denounces-colonialist-threat-as-trump-orders-airspace-closed-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/166707\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela denounces \u2018colonialist threat\u2019 as Trump orders airspace closed \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Venezuelan<\/a> government has responded defiantly to the heightened pressure by the US<\/a> government, including President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s recent statements on Saturday that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela is to be closed in its entirety.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Venezuelan government said Trump\u2019s comments were a \u201ccolonialist threat\u201d against their sovereignty and violated international law. The government also said it demanded respect for its airspace and would not accept foreign orders or threats.<\/p>\n

Trump on Saturday, in a Truth Social post said: \u201cTo all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to Trump\u2019s announcement, all migrant deportation flights were \u201cunilaterally suspended\u201d, the Venezuelan government added. Deportation flights to Venezuela have been a significant point of contention for the Trump administration, as it continues to engage in its mass deportation programme.<\/p>\n

The US defence department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

US strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean have been under way for months, along with a US military build-up in the region, and Trump has authorised covert CIA operations in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

The president told military service members this week that the US would \u201cvery soon\u201d begin land operations to stop suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers.<\/p>\n

Last week, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warned major airlines of a \u201cpotentially hazardous situation\u201d when flying over Venezuela due to a \u201cworsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around\u201d the South American country.<\/p>\n

Venezuela revoked operating rights for six major international airlines that had suspended flights to the country after the FAA warning.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has accused the Venezuelan president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, of involvement in drug trafficking, a charge he has denied.<\/p>\n

Maduro, in power since 2013, has said that Trump is seeking to oust him and that Venezuelan citizens and the military will resist any such attempt.<\/p>\n

US forces in the region have so far focused on counter-narcotics operations, although the assembled firepower far outweighs anything needed for them.<\/p>\n

They have carried out at least 21 strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific since September, killing at least 83 people. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Venezuelan government has responded defiantly to the heightened pressure by the US government, including President Donald Trump\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[969,74816,42,43,92550,40,38,41,39,115,90,92549],"class_list":["post-166707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-federal-aviation","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}