Colombian President Gustavo Petro has issued a sharp rebuke to US President Donald Trump, asserting that a foreign leader holds no authority to close the airspace of a sovereign nation.
The statement followed a warning issued by Mr Trump on Saturday regarding a “total closure” of the skies over Venezuela. Speaking in his capacity as both the Colombian head of state and the pro tempore leader of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), Mr Petro questioned the international legality of the move.
“I want to know: under what rule of international law can a president of one country close the airspace of another nation?” Mr Petro wrote on X.
He stated that if a legal precedent exists, he is willing to acknowledge it. However, he warned that without such a basis, the action represented a collapse of the global order.
“If that exists, please excuse my boldness,” Mr Petro wrote. “But if it doesn’t exist and ICAO [International Civil Aviation Organization] is failing at this moment, I tell the world that a foreign president cannot close a national airspace, or the concept of national sovereignty and the concept of ‘international law’ are finished.”
The diplomatic row began on Saturday morning when Mr Trump posted a message on his Truth Social account addressed to “airlines, pilots, drug dealers and human traffickers”. He urged them to consider the airspace over and around Venezuela “to be closed in its entirety“.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had previously warned airlines of a “potentially dangerous situation” regarding flights over Venezuela. These developments coincide with a US naval deployment in the Caribbean Sea and the US designation of the Cartel of the Suns as a terrorist organisation.
According to a report by The New York Times, tensions rose following a recent telephone call between Mr Trump and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The US President reportedly issued an ultimatum for Mr Maduro to vacate the Miraflores Palace shortly. The publication also reported that Mr Maduro had offered the United States a significant stake in Venezuelan oil fields, an offer the US rejected with a “resounding no”.
The Maduro government described Mr Trump’s warning as a “colonialist threat”. In response to the disruption, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez announced that Mr Maduro had activated a “special plan” to facilitate the return of Venezuelans stranded abroad and assist those requiring departure itineraries.
Ms Rodríguez did not provide specific details on the plan’s implementation but confirmed the message was disseminated via Telegram.
Ms Rodríguez stated that Venezuela had activated multilateral mechanisms to achieve “the immediate cessation of this illegitimate and unlawful action”.
She further alleged that the US government’s blockade of the airspace was enacted at the request of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Ms Machado, who was recently named the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, currently remains in hiding while preparations continue for the award ceremony in Oslo.
The warnings from Washington have triggered flight cancellations and created uncertainty regarding air safety throughout the region. Mr Petro, who maintains close ties with Mr Maduro, emphasised that the international community must clarify whether a precedent exists that validates direct intervention in the air traffic control of a sovereign state.
All statements by Mr Petro, originally posted in Spanish on X, are quoted here in translation.