President Donald Trump on Thursday directed the opening of commercial airspace over Venezuela, allowing U.S. citizens to travel to the country soon.
Trump announced the development at the top of the tenth cabinet meeting of his second administration, shortly after speaking with acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez.
“I just spoke to the president of Venezuela… informed her that we’re going to be opening up all commercial airspace over Venezuela. American citizens will be, very shortly, able to go to Venezuela, and they’ll be safe there,” he said.
“It’s under very strong control, and the people formerly of Venezuela, some want to go back, and some want to go back to visit, and they’re going to be able to do that,” he added.
The president shared that he instructed Transportation Secretary Dean Duffy to open commercial airspace over Venezuela by the end of Thursday.
“So I’ve instructed Sean Duffy and everybody else concerned, including the military, that if you would, by the end of today, I’d like you to have the airspace over Venezuela — planes can go to Venezuela — opened up,” he noted.
The action comes just 26 days after operation Absolute Resolve in which U.S. forces captured Maduro and extradited him to New York where he faces narco-terrorism and weapons charges.
Trump also thanked Venezuela’s current leadership and noted, “We’re getting along really well with them.”
“They have informed me that they feel there’s very good security, very strong security,” he said.
He also noted that Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright are working on the oil infrastructure in Venezuela. The president said in a January 3 press conference that U.S. oil companies would “fix” the country’s aged oil infrastructure.
“We have the major oil companies going to Venezuela now, scouting it out and picking their locations, and they’ll be bringing back tremendous wealth for Venezuela and for the United States,” he said Thursday.
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