The skies over Venezuela have become another front. For a week now, what looked like another element of Washington’s hybrid offensive against Caracas has turned into a massive, silent battleground isolating the country. Venezuelan airspace is now the scene of threats, warnings, canceled flights and military maneuvers that are fueling a wave of uncertain outcomes. At approximately 1:00 p.m. On Sunday local time, air traffic trackers showed an unusual picture: Only seven planes crossed Venezuela’s skies: a few small civilian planes, a commercial flight still maintaining its course, and a plane from the Bolivarian Air Force. On those maps full of small, colorful planes, Venezuela stands out like a huge black hole. For the first time in a long time, these days a sky previously saturated with international communications appears to have turned into a no-go zone. Donald Trump’s message is clear: Caracas is left alone in paradise.
Washington’s strategy aims precisely to fill this void: to turn aerial isolation into another tool for political pressure. Less cargo, less mobility, more uncertainty. Donald Trump’s announcement of a “total closure of Venezuelan airspace” last Saturday was a new development. Imposing the exclusion zone does not seem like an action Trump could implement from the Oval Office, but it serves as a warning. For everyone. It prompts airlines to avoid the route, fuels perceptions of risk and reduces the symbolic blockade of Nicolás Maduro’s government.
The United States has used airspace as an instrument of coercion in other international crises – from flight restrictions over Iraq in the 1990s to air pressure on Libya or Syria in phases of heightened tension – but rarely in a unilateral manner and directly linked to a conflict in the Western Hemisphere. “The Western Hemisphere is the region adjacent to the United States, and we will protect it,” Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s defense secretary, said a few weeks ago, when he announced the start of the military operation “Southern Spear”, targeting drug trafficking, but primarily, Venezuela.
A North American attack, combined with an unprecedented military deployment in the Caribbean, would put the Chavez regime on alert. With continuous demonstrations of force. With unity messages. With warnings that they will defend themselves until the last consequences.
On Thursday, Maduro’s Defense Minister, Vladimir Padrino, posted a video clip on Instagram in which he showed military aircraft maneuvers. It was a leaflet on the occasion of Bolivarian Military Aviation Day, but it included a strong message from Padrino: “We are ready to defend our national skies. We are ready to respond to any aggression against the people of Venezuela, against its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Bolivarian military aviation knows that it must strike hard where it must strike. Strike and win!”
Chavismo described Trump’s announcement as a “hostile act” and “an explicit threat to use force.” Meanwhile, the United States continued its flights near the Venezuelan coast. F18 fighter jets were seen on Saturday near Falcon State in the west of the country. To this, the Bolivarian Armed Forces responded by deploying a new anti-aircraft defense system in the city of Licherias, eastern Venezuela.
The region notes with concern the turn the crisis has taken. Latin American leaders fear escalation, military conflict, and thus a new humanitarian crisis that would push – once again – hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans towards their borders. From Mexico to Buenos Aires, governments are closely following the development of the conflict with fear and uncertainty that the flammable scenario could become tense at any moment – and under any circumstances. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warned that “one shot is enough to start a war, but no one knows how it will end.” At the same time, he does not rule out the possibility that nothing will happen, or that matters will be resolved – it is not known how – through diplomatic channels.
In Bogotá, President Gustavo Petro has become the main critic of Trump’s strategy to impose hegemony on the continent. On Sunday, the Colombian president publicly questioned the Republicans’ announcement regarding the effective closure of Venezuelan airspace. Petro called for urgent intervention from the International Civil Aviation Organization and the European Union. “If a foreign president can close another country’s airspace without a base to support him, national sovereignty ceases to exist,” he warned. “Closing Venezuelan airspace is completely illegal,” he said on his X account, his favorite platform to comment on any issue. Colombia has reasons to worry: it shares a border of more than a thousand kilometers with Venezuela, and four million Venezuelans have migrated to the country in search of asylum. Petro’s relationship with Trump has also reached unprecedented levels of hostility.
In just one week, the weather palette has changed amazingly. The crisis taking place in the skies of Venezuela dates back to last November 21, when the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a danger warning due to the increase in military operations in Venezuelan airspace. Since then, tensions between the two countries have escalated again. Colombian aviation authorities were the first to recommend that its airlines not fly to and from Caracas, although Bogotá remains the preferred route for transporting stranded tourists out of the country. Spain’s state aviation safety agency (AESA) joined the North American warning, which recommended that flights be suspended until at least Monday, December 1. The alerts caused a series of cancellations from Air Europe, Plus Ultra, Iberia, Turkish Airlines, Aviaca, LAN, Gol and TAP.
Venezuela took airline precautions as support for “acts of state terrorism promoted by the United States government.” In response, it canceled the licenses of all companies that had suspended flights. Thus, the air connectivity crisis that the country has been facing for several years takes on a new and dangerous ring. Currently, Venezuela only has contact with Bogotá, Panama City and some of the Antilles.
Air isolation also distorts daily life on the eve of the Christmas season. The suspension of international flights has left hundreds of passengers stranded inside and outside the country. At Madrid’s Barajas Airport, dozens of Venezuelans sleep in the aisles waiting to find a way to return home. Panama’s Copa Airlines is the main airline maintaining contact with Venezuela, but in response to Donald Trump’s message on Saturday, it has increased its security protocols and only serves daytime flights.
For their part, Russian tour operators, which maintain regular charter flights from Moscow to Margaret Island, have also suspended their programs. “The flight program to Venezuela is scheduled to resume after the situation returns to normal,” a press release on the Russian Tour Operators Association portal said. Travelers who purchased packages for December 1 are now offered Varadero, Cuba as a destination. The organization indicates that Russian tourists currently on the Venezuelan island will return to Moscow on the initially scheduled dates.
The air crisis required more than rhetoric and symbolism on the part of Chavismo. Vice President Delcy Rodriguez reported on Saturday that they would activate a “special plan” for the return of stranded Venezuelans and the departure of those who must travel, but did not provide details on how it would be implemented. Two weekly flights for migrants returning from the United States have also been suspended. Rodriguez blamed opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado for ordering the airspace blockade, and Washington for “tolerating it.”