Overview
- Multiple international carriers suspended Caracas routes after an FAA warning about a potentially dangerous airspace, prompting Venezuela to threaten revocation of traffic rights within 48 hours as IATA urged dialogue.
- Operation Southern Spear continues with more than a dozen U.S. warships and roughly 15,000 personnel deployed, and public tallies attribute at least 83 deaths to maritime strikes on suspected drug vessels since September.
- Nicolás Maduro highlighted closer ties with China and Russia and announced plans for deeper intergovernmental cooperation in energy, finance and defense after rejecting the U.S. move as a fabrication.
- Axios reported that President Donald Trump is considering a direct call with Maduro with no date set, as senior U.S. defense officials engage partners in the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago on counter‑narcotics coordination.
- Maduro rallied security forces and supporters, calling the situation a decisive test for the republic, as authorities signaled readiness to defend territory against what they describe as external threats.