The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has issued a warning against flights over Venezuela due to a “possible risk situation”. Meanwhile, uncertainty continues over what the Donald Trump administration’s next steps will be towards that country, following the incorporation of the aircraft carrier. Gerard Ford to Washington’s large naval deployment near Venezuelan territorial waters to participate in what the United States calls Operation Southern Spear against drug trafficking.
The FAA doesn’t go so far as to ban flights, but advises airlines to “exercise caution” due to the “deteriorating security situation and increasing military activity in or around Venezuela.” “The threats could pose a potential risk to aircraft at all altitudes, including take-off and landing,” as well as to airports themselves and aircraft on the ground.
The advisory, which will remain in effect until February 19, requires airlines to notify the regulator 72 hours in advance if any of their planes plan to enter Venezuelan airspace, and if so provide specific details.
US airlines have not maintained direct flights to Venezuela since 2019, but some of them have continued to fly over the Caribbean country’s airspace en route to other countries on the continent. American Airlines said it stopped crossing Venezuelan territory last month. Another major US airline, Delta Airlines, said it had avoided such overflights “for a long time”. The third, United Airlines, has not yet commented.
The US aviation authority explains that since September in Venezuela an increase in interference has been detected in the global navigation satellite system (GNSS), used by planes to orient themselves on their routes. Such interference, the FAA notes, can have lasting effects on a flight. The regulator also cites as a risk reason “activity associated with increased military preparations in Venezuela,” which has completed “multiple military maneuvers and ordered the mass mobilization of thousands of soldiers and reserve forces.”
The FAA statement fuels nervousness in the region, where US forces are waging a campaign that the US describes as countering drug trafficking and which has sunk at least twenty suspected drug trafficking vessels in international waters of the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. These extrajudicial military attacks, which many experts, legislators and human rights defenders denounce as illegal, have killed more than eighty people.
In Colombia, the national civil aviation authority has ensured that both the organization and airlines adapt routes and procedures “so that all flights remain safe”. Among other measures, commercial airlines are instructed to notify “when they deem relevant, a minimum of 72 hours in advance, specific details of information that could affect the development of planned flights” and to immediately report any incident or risk found in the area included in the FAA advisory.
Although Washington claims that the objective of the Lanza del Sur operation is to fight drug trafficking, others suspect, including Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro himself, that it is an initiative to force the departure of the Chavista leader, both through psychological pressure and direct actions. In particular, the arrival last week of the Ford, the largest and most modern aircraft carrier in the world, has sparked speculation that Trump, who has already authorized the CIA to carry out secret missions on Venezuelan soil, could order some kind of action on the territory of the Caribbean country.
In February the State Department included several drug cartels – including the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang – on its list of international terrorist organizations. Washington claims to justify its campaign against alleged drug gangs by claiming that it is at war with these groups and that their members are enemy combatants. Last week it also included in the list the Soles cartel, an entity that accuses Maduro of being at the forefront as a leader of drug trafficking in Venezuela. The inclusion will become effective starting this Monday.
