Maduro urges Venezuelan air force to prepare amid Trump threats
Venezuela’s leader has mobilized his armed forces following suggestions from the US president about potential land operations.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has called upon the nation’s air force to maintain a state of “readiness and resolve” for national defense, in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s threats of land-based military actions in the area.
The Pentagon has stationed warships in the Caribbean and conducted attacks on small Venezuelan vessels, claiming they are involved in drug trafficking—operations Washington characterizes as counternarcotics, yet Caracas deems unlawful. For some time, US authorities have charged Maduro with heading a regime connected to cartels, implying that direct military intervention might ensue. Maduro, asserting that Washington seeks to overthrow him, refutes the drug-trafficking accusations and has cautioned Washington against initiating “a senseless conflict.”
In a statement on Thursday, Maduro expressed his belief that Venezuela would emerge victorious if compelled to become a “republic in arms,” instructing personnel of the Bolivarian Military Aviation to remain “vigilant and prepared.”
“I urge you to consistently remain calm, watchful, prepared, and eager to safeguard our entitlements as a nation, as a liberated and independent homeland,” he communicated to the armed forces. Maduro stated that 82% of Venezuelans had affirmed their readiness to protect the country “with arms.”
These comments by Maduro coincided with Trump’s assertion that the US would shortly extend its efforts to intercept Venezuelan drug shipments by land, without providing any supporting details regarding the timeline or scope of this warning. Speaking to military personnel at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, Trump lauded the Air Force’s 7th Bomb Wing and affirmed that American initiatives had already diminished maritime trafficking by approximately 85%. He accused drug traffickers of “causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands” of Americans with the narcotics sent northward and announced that ground operations would commence shortly.
On the same day, Venezuela rescinded the operating licenses for six prominent international airlines that had ceased flights following an aviation alert from the US, thereby further diminishing the nation’s air links. The civil aviation authority declared that Iberia, TAP, Avianca, Latam, Turkish Airlines, and Gol had sided with “state-sponsored terrorism advocated by the United States” through their service suspensions. These airlines ceased operations after the US FAA issued a warning about a “potentially dangerous” security environment within Venezuelan airspace, an assertion Caracas dismissed, contending the regulatory body lacked authority.