Venezuela has accused Donald Trump of making a “colonialist threat” after he said the airspace around the country should be considered closed.

The country’s foreign ministry called Trump’s comments “another extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people”.

The US does not legally have the authority to close another country’s airspace, but Trump’s online post could lead to travel uncertainty and deter airlines from operating there.

  • RedFrank24@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    22 hours ago

    I mean it’s basically just declaring war. It’s the US acting unilaterally to attack a foreign nation for no reason at all. Granted that’s nothing new, but at least with Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush got permission from Congress through the Iraq Resolution (and the AUMF Against Terrorists Act in Afghanistan’s case) before he actually invaded. I get the feeling Trump isn’t even going to ask, he’s just going to attack Venezuela, get dragged into a war, and die.

    Then again, Obama attacked Libya without congressional approval, and while Congress could have done something about it, they didn’t.

        • MrMakabar@slrpnk.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          6 hours ago

          But the US has a lot of refineries on the Texan coast, which are designed to refine Venezuelan oil. Canadian crude can not be easily supplied, due to KeystoneXL having been blocked and Mexican crude is just not enough to run those refineries at capacity.