US President Donald Trump has said that Venezuela’s airspace should be considered ‘closed’ as Washington intensifies pressure on President Nicolas Maduro. President Trump, in his Truth Social post, called for an aerial blockade to ‘airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers,’ rather than to President Maduro.

Venezuela’s government said it ‘forcefully rejects’ Trump’s claim about closing the airspace and that it was a colonial threat intended to undermine the country’s territorial integrity, aeronautical security and full sovereignty. The Foreign Ministry said such declarations constitute a hostile, unilateral and arbitrary act. A number of airlines began rerouting flights away from Venezuela’s airspace earlier this month, and the US Federal Aviation Administration has issued a warning of ‘heightened military activity’ in the area.