Donald Trump has decided to increase pressure against Chavismo a day after it was made public that the first telephone conversation with Nicolás Maduro yielded no progress."To all airlines, pilots, drug traffickers, and human traffickers: Please consider that the airspace over and around Venezuela will remain closed in its entirety. Thank you for your attention!" the US president posted on his social media.

A week ago, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warned airlines worldwide about a"potentially hazardous" situation in the Maiquetía region, the airport serving Caracas, located on the coast, about half an hour from the Venezuelan capital. The recommendation at that time applied to operations at all altitudes"due to the deteriorating security situation and increased military activity in or around Venezuela."

The US announcement then sparked a tug-of-war between the Bolivarian Revolution and the airlines that canceled their flights to and from Caracas. Avianca, the Colombian airline, announced on Friday that it was indefinitely suspending all its flights after being sanctioned by the government of Nicolás Maduro."The priority is and always will be the safety of passengers and employees," Avianca concluded in its statement.

Caracas also decided to revoke the licenses of Spain's Iberia, as well as Portugal's TAP, Turkish Airlines, Brazil's GOL, and Chile's Latam.

The closure decreed by Trump is the latest sign of escalation sent from Washington, after the president himself announced that he will attack by land"very soon." In recent hours, Trinidad and Tobago, a country located just 12 kilometers from the Venezuelan coast, announced that the US will install a high-powered radar on its territory.

A White House official clarified the exclusive report published Friday by The New York Times regarding the phone call between the president and the usurper Maduro, considered by the US to be the main leader of the Cartel of the Suns. According to the Argentine news outlet Infobae, the White House has ruled out the face-to-face meeting that Maduro is demanding. During the conversation, which was also attended by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the main architect of the siege against Chavismo, Trump reportedly delivered an ultimatum to Maduro to leave Caracas due to the imminent threat of a military attack.

Caracas denounces"the colonialist threat"

Hours later, Venezuela repudiated"in the strongest possible terms" the message from the President of the United States, a message it described as a"hostile, unilateral, and arbitrary act." The official statement from the Bolivarian Republic criticized Trump for "unprecedentedly" attempting to "give orders and threaten the sovereignty" of another nation.

"Venezuela denounces and condemns the colonialist threat that seeks to affect the sovereignty of its airspace, (...) a new extravagant, illegal, and unjustified aggression," the text states. The Maduro regime demands"unrestricted respect" for its airspace and emphasizes that "no authority outside of Venezuelan institutions has the power to interfere with, block, or condition the use of national airspace."