Six international airlines have suspended flights to Venezuela after the United States warned major airlines of a “potentially dangerous situation” due to “increased military activity” in the South American region.
Spain’s Iberia, Portugal’s TAP, Chile’s LATAM, Colombia’s Avianca, Brazil’s GOL and Trinidad and Tobago’s Caribbean Airlines all suspended flights to the country on Saturday, AFP news agency reported, citing Maricela de Loaiza, head of the Venezuelan Airlines Association.
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TAP announced it was canceling flights scheduled for Saturday and next Tuesday, while Iberia announced it would suspend flights to Venezuela’s capital Caracas until further notice.
TAP told Reuters the decision was related to a U.S. notification “indicating that the security status of Venezuelan airspace is not guaranteed.”
According to AFP, Panama’s Copa Airlines, Spain’s Air Europa and Plus Ultra, Turkish Airlines and Venezuela’s LASER are continuing to operate for now.
The flight suspension comes amid rising tensions between the United States and Venezuela, with the U.S. government sending troops and the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean as part of an anti-drug operation. But Caracas says the operation is aimed at removing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power.
The U.S. military also carried out at least 21 attacks against suspected drug smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean, killing at least 83 people.
The campaign, which critics say violates both international and U.S. law, began after President Donald Trump’s administration described Maduro as the “world terrorist leader of the Cartel de los Soles” and increased the reward to $50 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
Meanwhile, President Trump has given mixed signals about possible intervention in Venezuela, saying in a CBS interview earlier this month that he doesn’t think Venezuela intended to go to war with Caracas.
But when asked if Mr Maduro’s life as president is over, he replied: “I think so.”
And on Sunday, he said the U.S. could begin talks with Maduro, and on Monday, when asked about the possibility of sending U.S. troops to the country, he said: “I don’t rule that out. I don’t rule anything out. We just have to look out for Venezuela.”
Days later, on Friday, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) called on all aircraft in the region to “exercise caution” due to the threat “during overflights, during the arrival and departure phases of flights, and at all altitudes, including at ground airports and aircraft.”
Relations between Washington and Caracas have been tense since the rise of Maduro’s leftist predecessor Hugo Chávez in the early 2000s.
Relations deteriorated further after Mr. Maduro came to power following Mr. Chávez’s death in 2013.
Successive US administrations have denied President Maduro’s legitimacy, accused him of corruption, authoritarianism and electoral fraud, and imposed heavy sanctions on Venezuela’s economy.
The Trump administration has hardened America’s attitude. Last week, the government labeled a Venezuelan drug organization called the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns) a “terrorist” group and accused Maduro of leading it, without providing evidence.
In recent weeks, conservative foreign policy hawks in the United States have increasingly called for President Trump to overthrow the Maduro regime.
President Maduro has accused the United States of fabricating a “pretext” for war and has repeatedly expressed his intention to engage in dialogue with the United States. But he warned that his country would push to defend itself.
“No foreign power will impose its will on our sovereign homeland,” Venezuelan news agency Telesur reported him saying.
“But if they break the peace and continue with their neo-colonial agenda, they will be in for a big surprise. I hope that doesn’t happen because, again, they will be in for a truly monumental surprise.”
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Colina Machado, who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize, has suggested that overthrowing Maduro will not result in regime change, claiming the president lost last year’s election and that the results were rigged.
“We are not asking for a change of government. We are asking for respect for the will of the people. It is up to the people to take care of and protect this transition to be orderly, peaceful and irreversible,” she told The Washington Post on Friday.
Machado, 58, has advocated for privatizing Venezuela’s oil sector and opening the country to foreign investment.
