President Donald Trump announced Saturday that airlines and pilots should consider the airspace over Venezuela to be shut down.
Writing in a post on Truth Social, the president said, “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Per Fox Business, direct flights from U.S. passenger and cargo carriers to the country under a socialist dictatorship were suspended in 2019. However, the article said some planes still fly over it.
In a call with military personnel on Thanksgiving, Trump said that land strikes on Venezuela would start “very soon” as part of the administration’s push “to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers.”
The Hill reported:
“In recent weeks, you’ve been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many,” Trump told military personnel in remarks on Thanksgiving. “Of course, there aren’t too many coming in by sea anymore.”
“You probably noticed that people aren’t wanting to be delivering by sea, and we’ll be starting to stop them by land also,” he continued.
“The land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon. We warn them: Stop sending poison to our country,” Trump added.
Trump recently stated that discussions with Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro were possible and Maduro wanted to engage, according to Breitbart News:
Trump said in October that Maduro had offered “everything” to cling to power when asked about a rumor of Maduro and those under him reaching out to the administration.
“He’s offered everything; you’re right. You know why? Because he doesn’t want to fuck around with the United States,” Trump said.
On Monday, U.S. officials designated Venezuelan Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization, UPI reported, noting the cartel “is a decentralized network of government and military officials in Venezuela who engage in drug trafficking.”
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro delivers a speech while holding the Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar’s ‘Sword of Peru’ during a military ceremony in Fuerte Tiuna, Caracas on November 25, 2025. (Photo by Federico PARRA / AFP via Getty Images)
The Trump administration has been working to protect U.S. borders from drug smugglers in boats. Breitbart News reported October 4:
Under direct orders from President Donald Trump, U.S. forces carried out a lethal strike early Friday morning against a drug-smuggling vessel affiliated with designated terrorist organizations in international waters near Venezuela. The operation killed four male narco-terrorists and intercepted a large narcotics shipment bound for the United States, reinforcing the administration’s aggressive posture on transnational threats to national security.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the attack on the Venezuelan terrorists’ drug smuggling boat loaded with narcotics. The secretary said, “Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route. These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!”
Video footage shows the moment the vessel was blown to pieces:
In regard to Trump’s recent announcement about Venezuelan airspace, international airlines began canceling flights to the country because officials with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warned of the risks, the Associated Press (AP) reported Sunday.
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