"Francisco Rodriguez, a senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said that after months of escalating tensions driven by Trump's strikes on boats in the Caribbean and other aggressive actions, the US government was treating the Venezuelan people as "chess pieces." "A country subject to air isolation is a country where medicine and essential supplies cannot enter, and whose citizens cannot travel even for emergency reasons," Rodriguez told Al Jazeera."
"Policy experts and advocates on Saturday denounced President Donald Trump's claim that he had ordered the airspace above and around Venezuela "to be closed in its entirety" - an authority the US president does not have but that one analyst said signaled a "scorched earth" policy in the South American country and that others warned could portend imminent airstrikes."
"US strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific have killed at least 83 people since early September, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly ordering US military officers to "kill everybody" on board when he directed the first strike. The administration claims it is conducting the strikes to stop drug trafficking from Venezuela, though US and international intelligence has shown the South American country is not involved in trafficking fentanyl to the US and serves as only a transit hub"
President Donald Trump claimed to have ordered the airspace above and around Venezuela closed in its entirety, a power that the US presidency does not possess. Policy experts and advocates denounced the claim as signaling a "scorched earth" approach and warned it could presage airstrikes. US military strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have killed at least 83 people since early September, with reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered forces to "kill everybody" on one strike. The administration frames strikes as counter-narcotics actions despite intelligence showing Venezuela is not a major fentanyl producer and serves mainly as a transit hub for cocaine.
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