Donald Trump warned on Saturday evening November 29, 2025 that he considered Venezuelan airspace to be “fully closed”triggering the ire of Caracas, which denounced a “hostile acts” and launched military maneuvers.
“To all airlines, pilots, drug traffickers and human traffickers,” wrote in capital letters the President of the United States on his Truth Social network, “please consider the airspace above and around Venezuela to be completely closed.”
He did not give further details.
This belligerent statement comes as the Trump government, which says it is fighting drug cartels in Mexico and Central America, is intensifying pressure on President Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuela, with a major military deployment in the Caribbean, notably using the world’s largest aircraft carrier. Donald Trump accuses Caracas of being behind the drug trafficking which is flooding the American market.
“Diet change”
Caracas denies this and insists that Washington’s real objective would be regime change and control of the country’s oil reserves.
President Maduro’s government on Saturday condemned “the colonialist threat that claims to affect the sovereignty of its airspace, thus constituting a new extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people.”
It is about“a hostile, unilateral and arbitrary act, incompatible with the most elementary principles of international law”, thundered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release.
Venezuelan armed forces carried out military maneuvers along the country’s coast on Saturday, according to state television, which broadcast images of anti-aircraft weapons and artillery pieces.
In Maracay, about a hundred kilometers from Caracas, Sukhoi combat planes of Russian origin and F-16s (purchased from the United States in the 1980s, Editor’s note) took part in an airshow, AFP journalists noted.
In addition, Caracas denounced the fact that Washington “unilaterally suspended” the repatriation of illegal Venezuelan migrants expelled from the United States, Donald Trump having made the fight against immigration his priority.
“To date, 75 flights have been carried out for the repatriation of 13,956 people,” recalls Caracas.
Maiquetia airport, which serves Caracas, was operating normally on Saturday, but six airlines suspended their connections with Venezuela this week for security reasons, causing them to have their licenses withdrawn by Caracas. These cancellations affect travelers.
“It was horrible, this trip is an odyssey and I spent a lot of money,” testifies Yusmaicar Salabarria, 35 years old, Venezuelan living in Chile and returned for the holidays. Having left Santiago, she had to go through Bogota, then Cucuta, at her own expense, where she crossed the border on foot before taking an internal Venezuelan line.
“New War”
She says she traveled “without fear” : “They (the Americans) always say they are going to attack, you have to live day by day, only God knows what will happen. »
Donald Trump warned Thursday that his armed forces would “very soon” start targeting “Venezuelan drug traffickers” during land operations, arousing opposition from American parliamentarians, Republicans and Democrats alike.
“As a reminder, only Congress has the power to declare war,” recalled Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, a figure of the radical right, but at odds with Trump and resigned from the House of Representatives.
“President Trump’s reckless actions toward Venezuela are pushing the United States ever closer to another costly war abroad”denounced Chuck Schumer, leader of the Democrats in the Senate, on Saturday evening.
Cartel of the Suns
In power since 2013, socialist President Nicolas Maduro, political heir of Hugo Chavez, was re-elected in 2024 in a contested election marked by unrest and arrests.
The United States has carried out strikes on more than twenty Venezuelan vessels suspected of drug trafficking in the Caribbean and Pacific since early September, killing at least 83 people, without providing evidence that the vessels were actually used for trafficking.
In recent days, constant activity by American fighter jets has been recorded a few dozen kilometers from the Venezuelan coast, according to aircraft tracking sites.
The New York Times revealed that Donald Trump and Nicolas Maduro had recently discussed on the phone a possible meeting in the United States.
Washington designated as “foreign terrorist organization” the Cartel of the Suns, whose existence remains controversial according to many experts and which, according to Washington, is led by President Maduro.
© Agence France-Presse
