Airlines Are Busy Canceling Flights To Venezuela In The Aftermath Of US-Caracas Tensions

JAKARTA - International airlines canceled more flights to Venezuela on Sunday after the US Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) warned pilots to be careful when flying in the country's airspace due to deteriorating security and increased military activity.

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

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

"The state is not blocked, because blocking the country means blocking people, and it is a crime against humanity," Petro continued.

Last week, the FAA warned unnamed threat pilots "could pose a potential risk to aircraft at all altitudes" as well as planes taking off and landing in the country and even planes on land.

The warning comes as Trump's administration's pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolwas Maduro increases.

The US military has flown bombers to the coast of Venezuela, sometimes as part of a simulated attack exercise, and delivered the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to the region.

Ford aircraft carriers and several destroyers are just the latest addition to the largest US troops to have gathered in the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela over generations. The Trump administration does not consider Maduro, which faces accusations of terrorism in the US, as the country's legitimate leader of South America.

The Trump administration has also carried out a series of attacks on small ships in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean accused of transporting drugs to the US, killing more than 80 people since the campaign began in early September.