In a strongly worded statement issued on Saturday, the Bolivarian Government said Trump\u2019s remarks amounted to a \u201ccolonialist threat\u201d and formed part of Washington\u2019s long-standing \u201cpolicy of aggression\u201d towards Venezuela and the wider Latin American and Caribbean region.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Trump posted on Truth Social earlier on Saturday, instructing \u201cairlines, pilots, drug dealers and human traffickers\u201d to regard \u201cthe airspace above and surrounding Venezuela to be closed in its entirety\u201d. He offered no explanation or legal basis for the declaration.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Venezuela said the statement represented an \u201cillegitimate attempt\u201d 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\u2019s national airspace.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The government insisted that Trump\u2019s comments constituted an \u201cexplicit threat of the use of force\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Venezuela cited the 1944 Chicago Convention, which affirms each state\u2019s \u201ccomplete and exclusive sovereignty\u201d over the airspace above its territory, adding that it would continue to exercise full control in accordance with international aviation rules.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The government warned that the US pronouncement had already disrupted scheduled weekly flights used to repatriate nationals under the \u201cPlan Vuelta a la Patria\u201d (Back to the Homeland Programme). According to officials, 75 flights have so far returned 13 956 Venezuelans.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Calling on the United Nations, foreign governments and international organisations to reject what it termed an \u201cimmoral act of aggression\u201d, Venezuela said the threat extended beyond its borders and endangered peace in the Caribbean and northern South America.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The statement closed by affirming that the country would respond \u201cwith dignity, legality, and all the strength granted by international law\u201d, vowing that its people would prevail in the face of external pressure.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14267,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-16405","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Venezuela has sharply condemned United States (US) President Donald Trump\u2019s declaration that the airspace above and around the country should be considered \u201cclosed\u201d, describing the statement as a direct threat to its sovereignty and a violation of international law.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Venezuela has sharply condemned United States (US) President Donald Trump\u2019s declaration that the airspace above and around the country should be considered \u201cclosed\u201d, describing the statement as a direct threat to its sovereignty and a violation of international law.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/16405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/16405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20225,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/16405\/revisions\/20225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=16405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}