by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News December 1, 2025
President Donald Trump closed down Venezuelan airspace after socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro refused Trump’s ultimatum to leave the country immediately, a report said.
During a phone call between Trump and Maduro, Trump said the dictator must “leave now or else,” the Miami Herald reported on Sunday.
Maduro demanded he be allowed to maintain control of Venezuela’s military if he paved the way for free elections there, according to the Herald’s sources. Maduro also reportedly sought global amnesty for all of his alleged crimes.
The U.S. president announced on Saturday that he was closing the airspace around the South American country. America’s largest warship, the USS Gerald Ford — and a Marine expeditionary unit, capable of amphibious invasion — moved into position offshore.
In a post to Truth Social, the president wrote: “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.”
By Sunday afternoon, a FlightRadar24 map showed that there were no international planes flying over Venezuela.
Flights to Aruba and Curacao — near the Venezuelan coast — appeared to be taking the long way around to avoid Venezuela.
Trump also warned that military operations inside Venezuela could begin “very soon.”
Trump told reporters on Sunday that he had spoken recently with Maduro, adding, “I wouldn’t say it went well or badly.”
The phone call between Trump and Maduro took place late in the week of Nov. 16, according to The New York Times, just days after Trump said he was open to talking with the dictator.
The call reportedly saw Trump’s and Maduro’s teams go over the details of what a surrender from the Venezuelan socialist would be like, given that the State Department has a bounty of $50 million on his head.
Trump informed Maduro during their chat that Maduro, his wife and son would be allowed to leave Venezuela safely, but they must do it immediately, sources said.
“First, Maduro asked for global amnesty for any crimes he and his group had committed, and that was rejected,” a source familiar with the call told the Herald.
“Second, they asked to retain control of the armed forces — similar to what happened in Nicaragua in ’91 with Violeta Chamorro. In return, they would allow free elections,” the source said.
The second proposal was also rejected by Trump.
The offer of amnesty was extended to Maduro’s top allies, the Herald noted.
Trump in Thanksgiving remarks to military personnel had said: “In recent weeks, you’ve been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many. Of course, there aren’t too many coming in by sea anymore.
“You probably noticed that people aren’t wanting to be delivering by sea, and we’ll be starting to stop them by land also. The land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon. We warn them: Stop sending poison to our country.”
The U.S. military has carried out at least 21 strikes on what it describes as drug-trafficking vessels and killed at least 82 people on as part of “Operation Southern Spear.”
The secretary of the U.S. Navy also framed the fight against Venezuelan drug traffickers as a war:
“Drugs kill more Americans than we’ve ever lost in wars. So I think at the end of the day, the president has correctly identified this as an attack on the country, which it is,” John Phelan said on Fox News’s “My View with Lara Trump” on Saturday.
There were more than 105,000 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2023, according to the latest available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s nearly double the more than 58,000 American servicemen who died in the Vietnam War.
Venezuela was one of 23 nations that Trump declared “major drug transit or major illicit drug producing countries” in September — along with China, India, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic.
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