President Trump is shutting down Venezuelan airspace “in its entirety” amid a surge in drug trafficking from the South American nation, he announced Saturday morning.
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY. Trump wrote in a morning Truth Social post.
“Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
“Please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” Trump wrote. AP
The measure comes just two days after the president said he would begin bombing land-based drug trafficking targets.
“The land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon,” Trump told reporters.
The US has been conducting a sea-focused campaign since September, bombing alleged drug boats originating in Venezuela and other Latin American nations.
Trump claims “poison” trafficking via sea has dropped by 85% since the bombings started, a practice Democrats, scholars and human rights experts have described as extrajudicial executions.
Trump has previously called Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro an illegitimate leader and the leader of the drug trafficking organization known as Cartel de los Soles. AFP via Getty Images
The administration has since carried out at least 21 fatal strikes on the boats.
In one such bombing, the US allegedly killed survivors after bombing a drug boat near Trinidad in a so-called “double tap” strike under orders from Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth to “kill everybody” — which the former Fox News contributor called “fake news.”
Trump spoke with Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro last week and discussed a possible meeting between them — which would mark the first-ever encounter between the authoritarian Venezuelan leader and a US president, the New York Times reported on Friday.
The president has previously slammed Maduro as an illegitimate leader and the leader of the drug trafficking organization known as Cartel de los Soles.