President Donald Trump says he’s reopening “all commercial airspace over Venezuela,” two months after he warned carriers away amid the U.S. military buildup against the South American nation.
U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3. Trump said Thursday he had directed the military, Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and “everybody else concerned” to allow the return of air travel to Venezuela.
“American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela. And they’ll be safe there,” Trump told his Cabinet. “It’s under very strong control.” He said the large Venezuelan diaspora would also be able to return home, to visit or stay.
“We’ve got this, Mr. President,” Duffy posted on X. “We are clearing the way for travel between the United States and Venezuela.”
Trump said he had informed interim Venezuelan president Delcy Rodríguez of the plan. Her authoritarian socialist government has been working with the Trump administration since Maduro’s capture on federal narco-terrorism charges.
“Let all the airlines come; let all the investors come,” Rodríguez told a rally Thursday in Caracas.
National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez called the reopening “a direct consequence of the peace diplomacy.” He is Delcy Rodríguez’s brother.
American Airlines plans to resume service to Venezuela pending government approval and security assessments, company officials said. The carrier began flying to the country in 1987 but suspended service in 2019 amid concerns of civil unrest and insecurity.
“We have a more than 30-year history connecting Venezolanos to the U.S., and we are ready to renew that incredible relationship,” Nat Pieper, the airline’s chief commercial officer, said in a statement. “By restarting service to Venezuela, American will offer customers the opportunity to reunite with families and create new business and commerce with the United States.”
The United States has not prevented U.S. citizens from traveling to Venezuela, but Venezuela requires a visa that must be secured in advance.
The State Department maintains a “Do Not Travel” advisory for the country, its strongest warning, “due to the high risk of wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, and poor health infrastructure.” In an alert on Jan. 10, a week after Maduro’s capture, the department urged U.S. citizens and permanent residents in Venezuela to leave immediately.
The Trump administration, which did not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate president, began building up military forces around the country in August and striking boats that officials said were smuggling drugs in September. Officials accused Maduro of leading a “Cartel de los Soles” — a Cartel of the Suns — in trafficking drugs to the United States to make money and weaken the country.
Trump warned carriers away from Venezuela in November. “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers,” he wrote on social media, “please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.”
Trump has opted to work with the remnants of Maduro’s government instead of the opposition leaders whom Washington previously supported. Audits of the 2024 presidential election by The Washington Post and other independent observers showed that opposition candidate Edmundo González likely defeated Maduro and Rodríguez, his running mate, by millions of votes.
Also Thursday, the Trump administration lifted a key barrier to U.S. firms seeking to trade Venezuelan oil moments after Caracas passed legislation to improve conditions for foreign investors.
The Treasury Department, which previously required U.S. firms to apply for limited individual exemptions from sanctions to work with Venezuela’s state-run oil company, announced a general license permitting U.S. companies to buy, sell, transport and refine Venezuelan oil, among other activities.
The announcement came after Venezuela’s National Assembly voted unanimously to open the oil sector to more private investment. The law reduces the taxes and royalties foreign firms must pay the Venezuelan government and establishes international arbitration to settle disputes.
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