President Donald Trump on Saturday announced via Truth Social that Venezuelan airspace is “closed in its entirety,” marking a further escalation in tensions between Washington and Caracas.
Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Yván Gil Pinto denounced the move, calling Trump’s statement “a hostile, unilateral, and arbitrary act, incompatible with the most fundamental principles of international law.”
The announcement comes amid pressure from a hawkish faction within the Trump administration, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, urging more aggressive steps ostensibly aimed at toppling the government of President Nicolás Maduro. Those efforts have included the authorization of covert operations, according to U.S. officials, even as parallel back-channel diplomatic talks between Washington and Caracas have continued.
As the Trump administration looks to close Venezuela’s airspace, the U.S. military wages an extrajudicial assassination campaign against fishermen in the Caribbean suspected of trafficking drugs, with more than 80 reported killed in over 20 separate attacks so far. The Washington Post reported last week that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth issued a direct order to “kill everybody” aboard a suspected narco-boat.
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