The Venezuelan government demanded that the United States show “unconditional respect” for the country’s airspace. The text of the corresponding statement is posted on the government website.
“Venezuela demands strict respect for its airspace, protected by the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization,” the statement said.
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela condemns with absolute decisiveness the public statement circulated on social networks by the President of the United States, in which he claims to extraterritorially apply the illegal jurisdiction of the United States on Venezuelan territory, incredibly trying to give orders and threaten the sovereignty of national airspace, territorial integrity, air traffic safety and the full sovereignty of the Venezuelan state, follows from the text.
The document states that such statements constitute a “hostile, unilateral and arbitrary act”, incompatible with the most elementary principles of international law and fitting into the constant policy of aggression against Venezuela, with colonial claims on the region of Latin America and Caribbean countries that deny international law.
In this context, Venezuela declares to the world that such allegations constitute a clear threat of the use of force, expressly and unequivocally prohibited by Article 2, paragraph 4, of the Charter of the United Nations, the government said. Moreover, this attempt at intimidation violates Article 1 of the same Charter, which enshrines as the primary purpose the maintenance of international peace and security, the text says.
Venezuela demands unconditional respect for its airspace, protected by the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and confirmed by the Chicago Convention of 1944, Article 1 of which categorically recognizes that “every State has complete and exclusive sovereignty over airspace over its territory,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic, Ivan Gil, in his Telegram channel.
US President Donald Trump previously announced the closure of the airspace over and around Venezuela. “All airlines, pilots, drug traffickers and human traffickers, please note that the airspace of Venezuela and surrounding areas will be completely closed,” the head of the White House wrote on his page on the social network.