(MENAFN) Recent weeks have seen the United States conducting simulated airstrikes targeting Venezuela, according to a Saturday report from a media outlet, which referenced a defense official along with aircraft-monitoring data.

President Donald Trump has asserted that the Venezuelan administration is running “narcoterrorist” cartels, and on Saturday he declared that the nation’s airspace would be blocked to “all airlines, pilots, drug dealers, and human traffickers.”

This warning emerged alongside an expansion of US naval deployments in the Caribbean Sea, where—under Trump’s directives—over 20 suspected drug-trafficking ships have allegedly been intercepted since September.

As noted by the media outlet, Trump reportedly informed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during a covert phone discussion last week that he might contemplate removing him unless he relinquished power.

Although neither government has acknowledged that such a call happened, Trump has earlier dismissed any intention of displacing Maduro through military action.

In August, Washington raised the reward for Maduro’s capture to $50 million.

On Saturday, Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry condemned what it described as a “colonialist” act of aggression against its aviation, asserting that the move breaches international law.

Maduro has placed the country’s armed forces on heightened alert and carried out numerous military exercises, pledging to counter any prospective incursion.

The Venezuelan authorities have refuted claims of collaborating with cartels, contending that Trump is exploiting anti–drug trafficking operations as justification for pursuing a change in leadership.

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