Airlines cancel flights to Venezuela after FAA warns of worsening security, military activity

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CARACAS (AP) — International airlines increasingly canceled flights to Venezuela on Sunday after t he U.S. Federal Aviation Administration warned pilots to use caution when flying in the country’s airspace because of worsening security and heightened military activity.

Marisela de Loaiza, president of the Airlines Association in Venezuela, told The Associated Press that six carriers have indefinitely suspended flights: TAP, LATAM, Avianca, Iberia, Gol and Caribbean. Turkish Airlines suspended flights from Nov. 24 to 28.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote Sunday on X that “there must be regular flights to all Latin American countries and from Latin America and the world.”

“Countries are not blocked, because blocking countries means blocking people, and that is a crime against humanity," Petro added.

On Friday, the FAA warned pilots that unspecified threats “could pose a potential risk to aircraft at all altitudes” as well planes taking off and landing in the country and even aircraft on the ground.

The warning came as the Trump administration has ramped up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. military has conducted bomber flights up to the coast of Venezuela, sometimes as part of a training exercise to simulate an attack, and sent the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford into the region.

The Ford aircraft carrier and several destroyers were just the latest addition to the largest U.S. force assembled in the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela in generations. The Trump administration does not see Maduro, who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S., as the legitimate leader of the South American country.

The Trump administration also has carried out a series of strikes on small boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean that it accuses of ferrying drugs to the U.S., killing over 80 people in total since the campaign began in early September.

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Follow the AP’s Latin America coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america.