#usvenezuela-tensions

#usvenezuela-tensions

United States President Donald Trump declared on Saturday that Venezuelan airspace had been closed, without offering any further details, spiking tensions between Washington and Caracas amid months of military build-up in the Caribbean. Venezuela has accused the US of a colonialist threat in Latin America, as millions of people in the country remain on edge. President Nicolas Maduro had earlier warned that Washington was fabricating claims as a pretext to justify military intervention in Venezuela.

A senior-ranking lawmaker in Russia's lower parliament defense committee said the Kremlin has sent new air defense systems to Venezuela as the latter comes under heightened military pressure from the US. While speaking to Russian news outlet Gazeta, Alexei Zhuravlev, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, listed several weapons that Moscow previously supplied to Caracas, including Su-30MK2 fighters and S-300VMs.

Following a US attack on a suspected "drug-carrying vessel from Venezuela" that killed 11, Caracas has warned the US against using its military for "regime change." The US has deployed several warships to the Caribbean. The White House said, without providing evidence, that the people killed in the boat that had departed from Venezuela were "narco-terrorists" and part of the transnational Tren de Aragua group.