PALM BEACH, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump sharply escalated his threats against Venezuela on Saturday, ominously warning that the country’s airspace should be considered “closed.”

Caracas, which views a large US military buildup in the Caribbean as a pressure campaign to oust President Nicolas Maduro, slammed Trump’s warning as a “colonialist threat.”

“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network, “please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.”

The US president did not elaborate.

His warning comes days after US aviation regulators told airlines to use increased caution near Venezuela over the mounting tensions, prompting multiple major carriers to suspend flights.

A statement by the Venezuelan foreign ministry called the latest remarks from Trump a “new extravagant, illegal, and unjustified aggression against the people of Venezuela.”

It warned that the airspace disruptions would also mean a halt to repatriation flights of Venezuelan migrants from the United States.

At mid-afternoon, aviation tracking site FlightRadar24 showed only a few airplanes operating over Venezuela.

Trump’s administration is piling pressure on Venezuela, with a major military deployment in the Caribbean that includes the world’s largest aircraft carrier.

Washington says the aim is to curb drug trafficking, but Caracas insists regime change is the ultimate goal.

US forces have carried out strikes against more than 20 alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since early September, killing at least 83 people.

Washington has yet to release evidence that the vessels it targeted were used to smuggle drugs or posed a threat to the United States and experts say the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings even if they target known traffickers.

Raising the stakes further, Trump warned earlier this week that efforts to halt Venezuelan drug trafficking “by land” would begin “very soon.”

In recent days, repeated activity by US military aircraft has been recorded just a few dozen kilometers off the Venezuelan coast, according to aircraft tracking websites.

– Airline ban –
The Dominican Republic also granted the United States permission this week to use airport facilities as part of its deployment, while the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, located only a few kilometers from Venezuela, recently hosted US Marine Corps exercises.

The tensions have now led to major disruptions in air travel to and from Venezuela.

US aviation authorities last week urged civilian aircraft operating in Venezuelan airspace to “exercise caution” due to the “worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around Venezuela.”

That warning prompted six airlines that account for much of the travel in South America to suspend flights to Venezuela.

The move infuriated Caracas and led it to ban the companies — Spain’s Iberia, Portugal’s TAP, Colombia’s Avianca, Chile and Brazil’s LATAM, Brazil’s GOL and Turkish Airlines — for “joining the actions of state terrorism promoted by the United States government.”

Leftist Maduro, whose re-election last year was widely rejected by the international community as fraudulent, believes the operation is secretly aimed at overthrowing him.

He has reacted defiantly, staging military exercises and mass rallies aimed at projecting strength and popular support.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Trump and Maduro had spoken by phone last week and discussed a possible meeting in the United States.