Venezuela slams Trump’s order to ‘close’ its airspace as ‘colonialist threat’

Venezuela, on Saturday, strongly condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s declaration that the airspace above and surrounding the country should be considered “closed in its entirety,” calling the remark a “colonialist threat” that violates international law and national sovereignty.

Trump, taking to Truth Social, issued the statement in a post addressed broadly to “Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers.” He did not, however, specify whether or not the warning reflected a shift in U.S. policy or was linked to ongoing American operations targeting drug-trafficking networks in the region.

In a sharply worded statement, Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry said it “forcefully rejects” the assertion, describing it as a “hostile, unilateral and arbitrary act” aimed at undermining the country’s territorial integrity, aeronautical security and full sovereignty. The ministry also said the U.S. had “unilaterally suspended” biweekly deportation flights of Venezuelan migrants, flights that had returned more than 13,000 people this year following negotiations between the two governments.

Trump’s declaration comes amid an expanded U.S. military posture around Venezuela. Since early September, U.S. forces have carried out more than 20 strikes on small vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, accused of transporting drugs, with more than 80 people reported killed. The Pentagon has also deployed the USS Gerald R. Ford and other naval assets under “Operation Southern Spear,” creating what officials describe as one of the largest American force concentrations in the region in decades.