FAA Urges Pilots to Proceed With Caution in Venezuelan Airspace as Security Situation Deteriorates

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an advisory Friday advising pilots to “exercise caution” while flying in Venezuelan airspace “due to the worsening security situation and heightened military activity” around the country.

The advisory stated that undefined hazards “could pose a potential risk to aircraft at all altitudes,” including during takeoff, landing, and even on the tarmacs at airports in the nation.

The FAA’s guidance, which remains in effect for 90 days, comes as tensions escalate between the Trump administration and Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, as Washington steps up its military and counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean.

Amid actions targeting drug cartels at sea, President Donald Trump has said he is considering land strikes against the Latin American nation to stem drug trafficking.

“We are looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control,” Trump said during an Oct. 15 news briefing, confirming that he had authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela.

More recently, Trump said on Nov. 17 that he would speak with Maduro, but has not ruled out sending U.S. troops into the country. “We just have to take care of Venezuela. They dumped hundreds of thousands of people into our country from prisons,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.

The U.S. military has conducted bomber missions along Venezuela’s shoreline, occasionally executing offensive maneuvers in drills. The U.S. military has also positioned the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, in the region in mid-November. The Ford is flanked by multiple destroyers and marks the largest U.S. naval presence in the Caribbean near Venezuela in decades.

The United States does not recognize Maduro, who has been indicted on narcoterrorism charges in New York, as the legitimate leader of Venezuela. Maduro has denied the allegations against him. Since September, the Trump administration has also targeted small vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, which it accuses of transporting narcotics to the United States.

House Democrats moved to block funding on Friday for U.S. military action against Venezuela—the same day the House passed a bipartisan resolution denouncing the “horrors of socialism.”

The resolution noted “the implementation of socialism in Venezuela has turned a once-prosperous country into a failed State with the highest rate of inflation in the world.”

The measure lists Maduro and past Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez among those who have committed the greatest crimes in history in the service of socialist ideology, along with Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un, and Daniel Ortega.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.