Washington (EFE).- The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced on Thursday that commercial air connections with Venezuela will open “very shortly,” and ordered the process to begin after a conversation with Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodríguez.
“I just spoke to the President of Venezuela, informed her that we’re going to be opening up all commercial airspace over Venezuela,” Trump said during a meeting with his cabinet at the White House.
Trump stated that he gave instructions to Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy and everyone else involved, including the military, to open the airspace over Venezuela by late Thursday so that planes can fly there.
In Nov. 2025, before the military operation that deposed former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, Trump issued a warning that Venezuela’s airspace would be closed.
The day after Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were detained, on Jan. 4, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a new NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) about the “potentially dangerous” situation in the Maiquetía and the region at all altitudes due to military activity in or around Venezuela.
“Potential risks exist for aircraft at all altitudes, including during overflight and the arrival and departure phases of flight,” the notice said. It extends until Feb. 2, as shown on the FAA website.
As of Thursday, Trump mentioned the Venezuelan community in Doral, Miami, where most of the Venezuelan diaspora in the US concentrates, and said they were excited about the news.
“American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela, and they’ll be safe there. It’s under very strong control. And the people of formerly Venezuela, some wanna go back, some wanna go back to visit, and they are gonna be able to do that,” the US president said.
American Airlines was the last US airline to operate flights between the US and Venezuela, as it suspended all commercial air links in 2019 when the two countries finally severed their fragile diplomatic relations.EFE
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