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The U.S. Leader’s Truth The posts on the social platform come amid an escalation of weeks of rhetoric by U.S. officials against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Published November 29, 2025
US President Donald Trump has said he will “completely” close airspace over and around Venezuela amid rising tensions between the two countries.
There was no immediate reaction from Venezuela to President Trump’s social media post on Saturday.
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“To all airlines, pilots, drug traffickers, and human traffickers, please consider completely closing the airspace over and around Venezuela,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump’s post comes amid weeks of escalating rhetoric from senior U.S. officials against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his government.
The Trump administration has said it is targeting Venezuela as part of its efforts to combat drug trafficking, but experts and human rights observers have warned that the U.S. government appears to be preparing to illegally remove Maduro from power.
The United States has sent an aircraft carrier to the Caribbean to carry out a series of deadly bombing raids on ships it accuses of being involved in drug trafficking, killing dozens of people in what U.N. experts describe as extrajudicial killings.
President Trump warned earlier this week that he would soon begin targeting Venezuela’s “land-based” drug trafficking.
In a speech broadcast on state television on Thursday, President Maduro said Venezuelans would not be intimidated.
The Venezuelan president has “increased what the US calls ‘excuses and lies’ to justify intervention in Venezuela, and that was before President Trump made this announcement[Saturday],” Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman explained.
fear of attack
Newman said the Trump administration is “systematically increasing pressure” on Maduro’s government, while there are also reports that the U.S. president has met with the Venezuelan president.
On Friday, the New York Times reported that President Trump met with President Maduro last week to discuss the possibility of a summit between the two leaders in the United States.
The newspaper, citing people familiar with the matter, said there were currently no plans for such a meeting, and that if it were to take place, it would be the first-ever meeting between Maduro and a US president.
Newman said President Trump has been “going hot and cold” on Venezuela.
He added that while President Trump’s statement on Saturday was “an escalation on paper,” it remains to be seen whether the U.S. government will attack the country, adding that there is “growing concern.”
“When you tell airlines not to go to Venezuela and when you say the airspace is currently closed, you’re sending a very aggressive message. Whether that happens is another matter entirely,” she said.
Last week, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warned airlines that a “deteriorating security situation and increased military activity” could create “dangerous conditions” in Venezuelan airspace.
Six airlines, which account for the bulk of South American travel, have since suspended flights to Venezuela.
This angered the city of Caracas, which suspended the operating rights of both companies and accused them of “participating in an act of state terrorism promoted by the United States.”
