“He asked me what my opinion was about what they had done in  Venezuela , and I told him very clearly that our Constitution is very clear: we do not agree with interventions, period,” Sheinbaum stated. She described the exchange as “friendly” and respectful.

At the same time, Maduro extended a message to the US public, portraying Venezuela as a “friendly government” and a “brotherly people,” while calling for a renewed diplomatic dialogue between the two nations. He also defended Venezuela’s record on drug control and offered cooperation on anti-trafficking initiatives, highlighting readiness to negotiate concrete agreements if the United States engages seriously.

Governments that suspended flights or warned citizens against travelling cite a combination of security concerns, institutional breakdown, and unpredictable diplomatic tensions.

Since early September, the U.S. government has been carrying out airstrikes on vessels it claims are drug-running boats from Venezuela and other Latin American countries, actions that Democrats, legal scholars and human rights groups have criticised as extrajudicial killings.

On Thursday, November 27, Trump again warned that he is prepared to expand those strikes to targets on land.

"The land is easier, but that's going to start very soon," Trump told reporters.

Maduro also accused the U.S. in a televised address in October of openly authorising CIA operations to topple his government, calling the move “unprecedented” in modern history.

“The U.S.  government  has decided to send the CIA to Venezuela,” Maduro said in the televised address reported by Viory. “They want to frighten, divide, and demoralise our people. But our people are clear, united, with millions of eyes and ears. We will defeat this conspiracy again.”

A relationship built on confrontation

Tensions between Trump and Maduro date back to 2017, when the White House imposed sweeping sanctions on Venezuelan officials, state-run oil company PDVSA, and the government’s financial networks in a bid to force democratic reforms.

The sanctions accelerated Venezuela’s economic collapse, restricting its access to global capital markets and worsening shortages of fuel, medicine and basic goods.

By early 2019, the Trump administration recognised opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate interim president, triggering a rupture in diplomatic relations. Caracas expelled U.S. diplomats and accused Washington of orchestrating a coup.

As the political crisis intensified, Venezuela’s aviation system deteriorated further, prompting the U.S. decision to halt all flights that year.

Despite a brief easing of sanctions under President Joe Biden in 2023–24, Washington reinstated many restrictions after disagreements over electoral guarantees.

By the time Trump re-emerged as a central political figure in 2025, the relationship had once again become combustible.

Airlines began withdrawing voluntarily years before official bans, citing unpaid debts, unsafe airport conditions, and rising crime around transit hubs. Carriers from Colombia, Brazil, and several European countries reduced their routes long before the current wave of political restrictions.

Today’s bans come against a backdrop of continued concerns over Venezuela’s regulatory oversight, reports of airport corruption, and frequent nationwide blackouts that disrupt aviation systems. Several governments warn that deteriorating security and infrastructure make travel too risky for citizens or airline crews.

“Well, it's very interesting because the current US administration, President Trump, has talked openly about having a covert action plan to stem the flow of drugs to the United States,” Flynn said. 

She noted the unusual decision to speak publicly about such plans, given that “normally in the past, covert action means it's covert, and we don't talk about it.”

Flynn cautioned that the implications could extend well beyond counter-narcotics work. 

“If the US administration is thinking of this covert action as doing something beyond stemming the flow of drugs, but are also thinking of regime change, that's something that I think that you have to think long and hard about,” she said, adding that such efforts require “sufficient domestic support, including the military .”

She argued that analysts were wrong to treat US interference as unprecedented, pointing to both the Bay of Pigs fiasco and anti-drug operations in South America . 

“A lot of the commentators have said … nothing like this has ever happened. And yet there was a Peruvian shoot-down programme in Peru that ran in the nineties and through the early, very early two thousands,” she said.

On whether Nicolás Maduro’s government could be toppled, Flynn was sceptical. 

“It would take a lot. And simply because the military seems to support him,” she said. Foreign backers such as Iran and Russia were weakened, she noted, but “the bottom line is regime change is really hard,” requiring “a mass uprising supported by the military and the security services” to succeed.

Watch the full interview: