President Donald Trump defended calling Venezuela’s airspace closed, saying the country is sending criminals into the U.S., but told reporters not to ‘read anything into it’ when asked whether the warning suggested an imminent strike.
While speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said Venezuela is ‘not a very friendly country’ and claimed it has sent criminals, gang members and drug traffickers into the U.S.
On Saturday, Trump told airlines, pilots, drug dealers and human traffickers to ‘consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.’
When asked Sunday if the warning meant an airstrike is imminent, Trump said: ‘Don’t read anything into it.’
Trump also confirmed a report from the New York Times that he spoke on the phone with President Nicolás Maduro, though he offered no details about the conversation.
‘I wouldn’t say it went well or badly,’ he said. ‘It was a phone call.’
The president’s comments come amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela over Venezuela’s failure to stop drug traffickers from sending narcotics into the U.S.
Since September, the Trump administration has conducted over 20 strikes against alleged drug boats in Latin American waters and beefed up its military presence in the Caribbean as part of Trump’s effort to crack down on the flow of drugs into the U.S.
The strikes have brought the total number of suspected narco-terrorists eliminated to over 82, with three survivors.
But as the U.S. continues to bolster forces in the waters off Venezuela, Maduro has called for peace but also remained defiant against what he called ‘imperialist aggression.’
Maduro delivered an address in Caracas last week while brandishing a sword and warning supporters to prepare for confrontation, saying the U.S. will ‘very soon’ begin stopping suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers on land.
He appeared at a mass rally in the capital holding the sword of Simón Bolívar, the 19th-century independence leader regarded as the liberator of much of South America. Maduro told supporters the country was facing a decisive moment.
The Associated Press reported that he said, ‘For anyone, whether civilian, politician, military, or police – Let no one make excuses. Failure is not an option. The homeland demands it! Our greatest effort and sacrifice. And with (Simón) Bolívar, I come to say that if the homeland demands it, the homeland will have our lives, if necessary,’ he declared while raising Bolívar’s sword.
Maduro framed the situation as a struggle against what he described as external threats, urging Venezuelans to mobilize against any foreign aggression.
Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy and Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.