Airlines were adding larger aircraft to their Caribbean schedules on Sunday to try to get as many stranded vacationers back home after the federal government banned flights to a large swath of the area for 18 hours on Saturday. Most U.S. pilots and aircraft were banned from using the airspace as U.S. forces mounted an operation to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The couple was in custody in New York by late afternoon, and there was no sign of resistance from Venezuelan forces. Major airports in Curacao, Aruba, Puerto Rico, Bonaire, and Sint Maarten were closed for the day along with a dozen smaller fields, and many airlines canceled flights beyond those under the official closure. No major U.S. carriers serve Venezuela directly, but most were affected by the closure and hundreds of flights were canceled, disrupting travel plans of tens of thousands.
The actual operation to detain Maduro and Flores was carried out by the Army’s Delta Force, but they had plenty of help from above. Aircraft from the USS Gerald Ford, including Navy F/A-18 fighters and electronics warfare platforms and E-2 Hawkeye command and control aircraft, were involved as were F-35s, F-22s, B-1 bombers, Chinook and Blackhawk helicopters, and various drones. Most of the targets struck were communications sites. No U.S. casualties were reported.
No airspace or airport closures were needed on this grand scale for law enforcement and justice department service of justice to former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, convicted in US courts and serving prison time for conspiring to import cocaine into the US. Hernandez was pardoned on Dec 1 2025 by this same US president who just closed airspace to US carriers to facilitate the capture of Nicolas Maduro on similar charges. How, centuries after the careful inception by US founding fathers does truth become this much stranger than fiction?
Simple. It’s the weather. It all depends on which direction the wind blows.
Or, perhaps it’s “the direction the cash flows.”
Our government is full tilt rogue. Out of control, brazen, filled with arrogance and hate. Venezuela lived under US, CIA rule under Perez. Venezuelans know exactly what life is under US rule putting 70% of the citizens into abject poverty. Chavez was elected mid-90’s promising economic relief from the US oil oligarchy and a return of sovereignty for Venezuela. US response? Crippling sanctions. Yet Chavez delivered in spite of the sanctions reducing the poverty level from 70% to 7%. He nationalized their oil production so both Venezuela and US oil companies benefitted. Chavez hand picked Maduro as his successor as he was sick and shortly thereafter disappeared mysteriously never to be found. Maduro fulfilled the last few months of Chavez’s term and won the elections in spite of US election interference, sanctions, US led propaganda campaigns, multiple regime change attempts, and death threats with up to $50 million dollar bounties under Obama, Trump 1.0, Biden, and now Trump 2.0. No coincidence that Maduro was kidnapped on the anniversary of Trump’s assasination of Iran’s chief peace negotiator Solhemanni during Trump’s first term and while China’s Xi Ping handpicked economic advisors were in talks with Maduro a few hours before the bombs rained down in Caracas, this all in concert with Netenyaho’s visit solidifying US support for the soon coming US/Israel war with Iran, bombed Nigeria, and Trump’s attempt to assasinate Putin! All of this global chaos carried out in one week by US Peace President Donald J. Trump without a peep of approval from Congress or the US citizen’s. The silence is deafening! Happy New Year America! Life in the US will be rapidly changing from this historical pivot point. Good luck selling Treasuries and US bonds. Geez, can’t wait for next week to see what more mayhem, carnage, bloodshed, military intervention, and threats that can be accomplished in a seven day window by America, land of the free, home of the brave, in God we trust, the ideal combo platter of democracy that the whole world MUST follow… or else! Yeah, I’m pissed, disgusted, disappointed, and nauseated to put it mildly. Almost forgot, the airspace closed over and around Venezuela is now open. Enjoy your flight!
This is not just an aviation disruption story. It is a can of worms.
Raf,
Yes, indeed a can of incredibslly corrupt worms contained in a can now totally unrecognizable because it has been kicked down the road so many times since WWII.
Perhaps a closer look might reveal snakes on a plane…
Either way, I’m so tired of it all, and lately spending most of my time just circling my wagons, because as 101 said, the silence is deafening – from everyone.
That means unchecked power given by the citizens to this (person) leading our beloved country.
Normally, when I was younger I would have gladly put my uniform back on if asked to serve my country again. I’m happy I don’t have to consider that today.
Well said and agree with you fully… unchecked power GIVEN BY THE CITIZENS… to this (person) leading our beloved country. I too, at my age, am spending more and more of my time “circling my wagons” as our country rapidly collapses, morally, ethically, politically, militarily, and economically. Unfortunately, nothing will change until the economics collapse which is now imminent.
Please make your point without name calling folks.
Really the script for a blockbuster movie complete with real video footage from all sides
“” Gulf of America” Independent Agent Nicky and Co. visit Manhattan”. Tune in next week for a golf special– “Nicky and Bro’s enjoy 18 holes (of Swiss cheese) down south”. Program not rated for ” sensitive” viewers. Kindly contact your favourite broadcaster for ongoing details.
Sorry for necessary inconvenience to airline passengers. What an amazing operation at oh dark thirty. Glad we have someone in charge with the moxie to go where others fear to tread. Most politicians focused on their next election. President Trump . . . not so much.
“Most politicians focused on their next election. President Trump . . . not so much.”
Peaceful President Donald J. Trump is not focused on the next election because he is planning on not having one. We can revisit this conversation post November 2026.
The drama gossip ladies are gonna be all over your case for that comment, lol.
I certainly hope that you would “fear to tread” into your neighbor’s back yard to chain-saw his oak tree that’s dropping some of its acorns into your back yard. “Good fences make good neighbors” – as long as everyone abides by them. If not, you appeal to the HOA. You don’t jump the fence and cut down the tree in the middle of the night.
One neighbor’s “moxie” then becomes a police issue. Sadly, the police chief lives in the biggest house in the neighborhood and thinks he can go wherever he wants, whenever he wants, and do whatever the hell he wants. At this juncture, it appears that he’s right.
“No U.S. casualties were reported.”
And what about the casualties that WERE reported? Not worth mentioning ?They don’t count…? The human tragedy is just the same, whether the casualty was American, Venezuelan, Cuban, or whatever.