US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Venezuelan airspace should be considered “closed in its entirety.”

Through his account on the social network Truth, the president stated: “To all airlines, pilots, drug traffickers, and human traffickers: please consider that the airspace over Venezuela and its surroundings will remain completely closed. Thank you for your attention!”

The statement comes as the Trump administration increases pressure on Venezuela with a major military deployment in the Caribbean, which includes the world's largest aircraft carrier.

Over the past weekend, Trump held a telephone conversation with dictator Nicolás Maduro to warn that the United States will increase military actions if he does not leave Caracas in the short term.

Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio participated in the communication between the Republican leader and the Chavista dictator.

Rubio's inclusion in the contact with Maduro implies that the Republican administration has already ruled out alternative tactics with the populist regime - oil contracts, for example - which were being proposed in other power circles in the White House as a way to negotiate and begin the Venezuelan transition.

In his conversation with Maduro, Trump did not propose a negotiating table, nor a roadmap to allow the Venezuelan dictator to buy time in his favor against the military encirclement deployed by the Pentagon.

On the contrary, the President of the United States reaffirmed to Maduro his political decision to end the drug cartels that operate under the protection of the Miraflores Palace.

In addition, Trump made it clear that, along with Maduro, the main figures of the regime who benefited from illegal businesses - drugs, weapons, oil - and set up a repressive system that systematically violates human rights must leave Venezuela.

In this context, if the dictator leaves Caracas as Trump demands, then at least Diosdado Cabello, Vladimir Padrino and the siblings Delcy and Jorge Rodríguez, key members of the nomenklatura that operates with Maduro, should flee with him.

At the beginning of secret negotiations between the Republican administration and the Venezuelan dictatorship, the possibility of allowing Maduro to leave Caracas and entrusting the democratic transition to Delcy and Jorge Rodríguez was considered. Now, not even that: Trump demands that Maduro and his top officials flee in the short term.

Trump assured Maduro that political and military pressure on the regime would increase over time, and he kept his word. Hours after the phone call with Maduro, the State Department confirmed that the Cartel of the Suns was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).

Maduro is the head of the Cartel of the Suns, and its designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization allows the Trump administration to corner the populist regime.

The Pentagon has set up a military blockade off the coast of Venezuela, while the Treasury Department and the State Department have all the legal resources that allow them to suffocate the dictatorship and attack strategic targets in Venezuelan territory.

The Cartel of the Suns, designated as a foreign terrorist organization

The decision by the United States government to include the Cartel of the Suns on the list of foreign terrorist organizations opened the door to new measures of political, economic and military pressure in the region.

The list of foreign terrorist organizations is managed by the State Department and gives Washington broad legal powers, for example, to impose sanctions, freeze assets and prosecute any person or entity that collaborates with an organization included on the list.

Adding the Cartel of the Suns strengthens the legal framework already weighing on high-ranking Venezuelan officials for drug trafficking and corruption, and expands the possibility of more aggressive actions.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that the group “is responsible for terrorist violence throughout the hemisphere,” and reiterated that Washington considers Maduro himself to be the leader of the criminal organization. The Venezuelan dictatorship rejects these accusations and maintains that there is no public evidence linking it to drug trafficking networks.

What changes?

Aside from existing judicial investigations and sectoral sanctions—including the oil embargo and financial blocks—the new status authorizes additional pressure on allies, banks, companies, and individuals with ties to the Venezuelan regime or cartel leaders. Actions or support for the group may now be prosecuted under U.S. antiterrorism laws.

According to experts consulted by international agencies, the inclusion of the Cartel of the Suns on the FTO list"opens up new options" for the US administration, especially in military terms.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described the decision as a step that provides “a whole range of legal alternatives.” While the FTO legislation does not mention armed attacks, this change could serve as justification for future surgical operations on cartel-linked infrastructure or assets outside urban areas.

Military deployment

The statement came at a time of maximum US military presence in the Caribbean. The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford—the largest in the fleet—is leading an operation accompanied by more than a dozen ships, fighter jets, and 12,000 personnel to combat drug trafficking organizations.

Since September, US forces have sunk at least 21 suspected vessels and more than 80 deaths have been reported.

The campaign seeks to financially strangle the Caracas regime, which is already suffering from hyperinflation and restrictions on placing its oil on the international market. Economists quoted by the AFP news agency believe that the FTO designation could tighten the existing embargo and force Venezuela to sell crude at a steep discount, exacerbating the economic crisis.