In a strongly worded statement issued on Saturday, the Bolivarian Government said Trump’s remarks amounted to a “colonialist threat” and formed part of Washington’s long-standing “policy of aggression” towards Venezuela and the wider Latin American and Caribbean region.
Trump posted on Truth Social earlier on Saturday, instructing “airlines, pilots, drug dealers and human traffickers” to regard “the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela to be closed in its entirety”. He offered no explanation or legal basis for the declaration.
Venezuela said the statement represented an “illegitimate attempt” by the United States to apply its jurisdiction extraterritorially, arguing that no foreign authority has the power to issue orders or impose conditions on the country’s national airspace.
The government insisted that Trump’s comments constituted an “explicit threat of the use of force” prohibited under Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter. It also accused Washington of undermining international peace and security, in breach of Article 1 of the Charter.
Venezuela cited the 1944 Chicago Convention, which affirms each state’s “complete and exclusive sovereignty” over the airspace above its territory, adding that it would continue to exercise full control in accordance with international aviation rules.
The government warned that the US pronouncement had already disrupted scheduled weekly flights used to repatriate nationals under the “Plan Vuelta a la Patria” (Back to the Homeland Programme). According to officials, 75 flights have so far returned 13 956 Venezuelans.
Calling on the United Nations, foreign governments and international organisations to reject what it termed an “immoral act of aggression”, Venezuela said the threat extended beyond its borders and endangered peace in the Caribbean and northern South America.
The statement closed by affirming that the country would respond “with dignity, legality, and all the strength granted by international law”, vowing that its people would prevail in the face of external pressure.
–ChannelAfrica–
