{"id":55594,"date":"2025-11-29T15:23:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T15:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55594\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T15:23:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T15:23:12","slug":"trump-shuts-down-venezuelan-airspace-in-its-entirety-as-drug-trafficking-surges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55594\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump shuts down Venezuelan airspace \u2018in its entirety\u2019 as drug trafficking surges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President Trump is shutting down Venezuelan airspace \u201cin its entirety\u201d amid a surge in drug trafficking from the South American nation, he announced Saturday morning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo 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\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/115633041089714842\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">morning Truth Social post.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you for your attention to this matter!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37796803\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/president-donald-trump-speaks-reporters-116312306.jpg\" alt=\"President Donald Trump speaks to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago estate.\" class=\"wp-image-37796803\"  \/>\u201cPlease consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,\u201d Trump wrote. AP<\/p>\n<p>The measure comes just two days after the president said\u00a0he would begin bombing land-based drug trafficking targets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe land is easier, but that\u2019s going to start very soon,\u201d\u00a0Trump\u00a0told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>The US\u00a0has been\u00a0conducting\u00a0a sea-focused campaign since September,\u00a0bombing alleged drug boats originating in Venezuela and other Latin American nations.<\/p>\n<p>Trump claims \u201cpoison\u201d trafficking via sea has dropped by 85% since the bombings started, a practice Democrats, scholars and human rights experts have described as extrajudicial executions.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37797141\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2025-since-returning-white-house-116212306_e8169f.jpg\" alt=\"Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro at a press conference.\" class=\"wp-image-37797141\"  \/>Trump has previously called Venezuela\u2019s President Nicolas Maduro an illegitimate leader and the leader of the drug trafficking organization known as Cartel de los Soles. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The administration has since carried out\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/24\/us-news\/6-dead-after-us-strike-in-caribbean-targets-alleged-drug-running-boat-hegseth\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">at least 21 fatal strikes on the boats.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In one such bombing, the US allegedly killed survivors after bombing a drug boat near Trinidad in a so-called \u201cdouble tap\u201d strike under orders from Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth to \u201ckill everybody\u201d \u2014 which the former\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/11\/28\/us-news\/hegseth-dismisses-report-he-demanded-no-survivors-be-left-in-drug-boat-strike\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fox News contributor called \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Trump spoke with Venezuela\u2019s Nicolas\u00a0Maduro\u00a0last\u00a0week\u00a0and discussed a possible meeting between them \u2014 which would mark the first-ever encounter between the authoritarian\u00a0Venezuelan leader and a US president, the\u00a0New\u00a0York\u00a0Times\u00a0reported on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The president has previously slammed Maduro as an illegitimate leader and the leader of the drug trafficking organization known as Cartel de los Soles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Trump is shutting down Venezuelan airspace \u201cin its entirety\u201d amid a surge in drug trafficking from the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[153,9,11,10,87,7318,1076],"class_list":{"0":"post-55594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-venezuela","14":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}