Trump orders immediate reopening of commercial airspace over Venezuela

President Donald Trump ordered the immediate reopening of commercial airspace over Venezuela on Thursday, weeks after US military forces toppled Nicolás Maduro, speaking at the White House during his cabinet’s first meeting of the year after a telephone call with Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez.

At the meeting Trump said: “We’re going to be opening up all commercial airspace over Venezuela. American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela and they’ll be safe there.” He said he had instructed the US transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, and Pentagon officials to implement the change before the day’s end.

Direct commercial passenger and cargo flights between the US and Venezuela had been suspended since May 2019, when the Department of Transportation determined conditions posed unacceptable safety and security risks to American carriers, crews and passengers. In November Trump declared the airspace “above and surrounding” Venezuela should be considered “closed in its entirety,” and the FAA warned pilots amid heightened military activity as international airlines began canceling flights.

The announcement is the latest step in a rapid normalization of ties with the interim government in Caracas, which the report says is mostly composed of Maduro’s former subordinates.

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