{"id":207215,"date":"2025-11-29T23:24:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T23:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/207215\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T23:24:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T23:24:11","slug":"venezuela-denounces-colonialist-threat-as-trump-orders-airspace-closed-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/207215\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela denounces \u2018colonialist threat\u2019 as Trump orders airspace closed \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Venezuelan<\/a> government has responded defiantly to the heightened pressure by the US<\/a> government, including President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s recent statements on Saturday that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela is to be closed in its entirety.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Venezuelan government said Trump\u2019s comments were a \u201ccolonialist threat\u201d against their sovereignty and violated international law. The government also said it demanded respect for its airspace and would not accept foreign orders or threats.<\/p>\n

Trump on Saturday, in a Truth Social post said: \u201cTo all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to Trump\u2019s announcement, all migrant deportation flights were \u201cunilaterally suspended\u201d, the Venezuelan government added. Deportation flights to Venezuela have been a significant point of contention for the Trump administration, as it continues to engage in its mass deportation programme.<\/p>\n

The US defence department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

US strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean have been under way for months, along with a US military build-up in the region, and Trump has authorised covert CIA operations in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

The president told military service members this week that the US would \u201cvery soon\u201d begin land operations to stop suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers.<\/p>\n

Last week, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warned major airlines of a \u201cpotentially hazardous situation\u201d when flying over Venezuela due to a \u201cworsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around\u201d the South American country.<\/p>\n

Venezuela revoked operating rights for six major international airlines that had suspended flights to the country after the FAA warning.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has accused the Venezuelan president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, of involvement in drug trafficking, a charge he has denied.<\/p>\n

Maduro, in power since 2013, has said that Trump is seeking to oust him and that Venezuelan citizens and the military will resist any such attempt.<\/p>\n

US forces in the region have so far focused on counter-narcotics operations, although the assembled firepower far outweighs anything needed for them.<\/p>\n

They have carried out at least 21 strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific since September, killing at least 83 people. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Venezuelan government has responded defiantly to the heightened pressure by the US government, including President Donald Trump\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,356,18,13,14,96562,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,42875,7,8,384,107,4450],"class_list":{"0":"post-207215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-federal-aviation","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-nicolas-maduro","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-venezuela"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115635569609700853","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}