President Gustavo Petro once again challenged US President Donald Trump by ordering Colombia to restore civil air service with Venezuela, after Trump announced the “total” closure of Venezuelan airspace.

Through his X account, President Petro questioned Trump’s decision: “The US does not have the right to close Venezuelan airspace. It can do it with its airlines, but not with those of the world.”

Petro added in his message: “Colombia reestablishes civil air service with Venezuela and invites the world to do so. It is time for dialogue, not barbarism.”

Trump’s drastic measure against the regime of Nicolás Maduro occurred amid the increase in military tension in the Caribbean Sea. “To all airlines, pilots, drug traffickers and human traffickers: we ask you to consider that the airspace over and around Venezuela will remain completely closed. Thank you for your attention!”was the message from the American president that set off alarms.

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The response from the Venezuelan government was immediate and was issued through an official statement. ““It absolutely forcefully repudiates the public message spread today on social networks by the president of the United States, in which he intends to extraterritorially apply the illegitimate jurisdiction of the United States in Venezuela, by unusually trying to give orders and threaten the sovereignty of national airspace.”follows from the official position of the regime.

Venezuela denounced and condemned “the colonialist threat that seeks to affect the sovereignty of its airspace” and described it as “a new extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the people of Venezuela.”

The Maduro government’s statement ended with a defiant message: “Venezuela will continue to fully exercise its sovereignty protected by international law throughout its airspace. This threat against Venezuela is against continental peace and our people, heirs of the Liberator Simón Bolívar, will win.”

Petro’s decision to restore flights with Venezuela places him once again in tension with the United States, at a time when diplomatic relations between both countries are going through a complex period due to differences on foreign and regional policy issues.

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