Overview
- The FAA urged airlines to exercise extreme caution over Venezuela’s Maiquetía flight region due to deteriorating security and increased military activity.
- U.S. forces staged their largest recent demonstration near Venezuela, with carrier-based F/A-18E flights, a B-52 bomber and an RC‑135 operating off the coast as the USS Gerald R. Ford leads a regional deployment.
- The administration is set to designate the so‑called Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization as soon as Monday, a move that expands sanctions tools but does not itself authorize the use of force, according to officials and legal experts.
- President Donald Trump said he will speak with Nicolás Maduro “in the not‑too‑distant future” and has “something very specific” to tell him, even as prior off‑record talks and reported CIA covert authorities were denied by Caracas.
- Venezuelan leaders denounced U.S. actions as an attempt at subjugation, announced training and mobilizations, and criticized U.S. exercises in Trinidad and Tobago, while regional operations have included strikes on small boats that U.S. officials link to drug trafficking and reports say caused dozens of deaths.