President Donald Trump has declared the airspace over Venezuela ‘to be closed in its entirety’ as the US continues to threaten military action against the country.
In a Saturday morning post to his Truth Social, he asked all ‘airlines, pilots, drug dealers, and human traffickers’, to steer clear of the area.
The Trump administration has accused Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro of leading and protecting a criminal network known as the Cartel de los Soles.
The shift in military posture has coincided with warnings from US officials that their operation is entering what they call a ‘new phase’.
The announcement on Saturday morning comes after a New York Times report emerged on Friday that said Trump had spoken with Maduro in the last week.
Current and former officials at the Pentagon have estimated that the lethal campaign against suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers has killed over 80 people, including 11 people on board a boat hit by a US missile strike in September.
Meanwhile the Minister of Defence Wayne Sturge in a press release on the matter is urging calm.
The release noted that control of the airspace and territorial waters of Trinidad and Tobago fall under that the Ministry of Defence.
It further assures the travelling public that commercial airlines, both local, regional, and international continue to operate flights into and out of our airspace without hindrance and will continue to do so.
The ministry in its release notes that there will be official timely communication whenever the need arises.