From NPR:
The Venezuelan government has condemned President Trump’s statement on Saturday calling for the airspace above Venezuela to be closed.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.”
The Venezuelan government responded with a statement saying Trump’s comments violate international law and are a “colonialist threat” to the country’s sovereignty.
“No authority outside the Venezuelan institutional framework has the power to interfere with, block, or condition the use of international airspace,” the statement said.
As of Sunday afternoon, Flightradar24 shows planes continuing to fly in Venezuelan airspace.
This comes a day after the Senate and House Armed Services committees said they would look into the Pentagon after The Washington Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to kill all crew members aboard a boat suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean in September. NPR has confirmed the Washington Post’s reporting.
The military has carried out at least 21 strikes and killed at least 82 people on alleged drug boats as part of “Operation Southern Spear,” a campaign that the Trump administration says is aimed at tackling drug-trafficking.
Venezuela said in its statement that “such statements represent an explicit use of force, which is prohibited by Article 2, paragraph 4 of the U.N. Charter of the United Nations.”
Democrats have also strongly criticized the administration’s strategy, saying the military didn’t have enough evidence that the boats were carrying drugs before conducting the strikes. Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, told ABC’S This Week on Sunday it’s possible the military’s actions could be considered a “war crime,” and that Hegseth should be held accountable.
“They’ve never presented the public with the information they’ve got here,” Van Hollen said, “But it could be worse than that, right? If that theory is wrong, then it’s plain murder.”
