Vice President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, stated that the United States has maintained a historical strategy to appropriate the country's energy reserves and warned that recent military threats against Caracas confirm this intention. In statements distributed by Xinhua and accessed by Agencia Noticias Argentina, she affirmed that the naval deployment in the Caribbean does not represent the "right" way to relate to Venezuela. Rodríguez recalled before students at the Venezuelan University of Hydrocarbons that Washington sought for over a century to influence the country's oil policy. She assured that "The United States has always had in its strategic objectives to take Venezuela's energy reserves" and that this vision drives sanctions and economic pressures. Additionally, she pointed out that internal actors have facilitated these interests, accused the radical Venezuelan opposition of having "agreed to the delivery" of strategic resources, and maintained that extremist positions seek to support the US agenda, which she described as interventionist. In her speech, she defended sovereignty over oil and gas, by stating that the country is advancing in new commercial routes, including the historic start of gas exports to Colombia, and reiterated that energy relations must be based on cooperation and international law, not on coercion. Rodríguez assured that Venezuela has faced similar episodes in the past and mentioned other US interferences to take control of the South American country's energy wealth. Meanwhile, she added, in a message addressed to her political adversaries, that the response must be institutional and commercial: "Understand once and for all that you have no other option than the path of commercial agreement, cooperation".
The Venezuelan Government announced in the early hours of this Thursday the revocation of the concession to six international airlines that unilaterally suspended their operations after a flight warning issued by the United States. According to a communiqué issued by Venezuela's National Institute of Civil Aviation (INAC), the airlines whose concession was revoked are: the Spanish Iberia; the Portuguese TAP; the Colombian Avianca; Latam Colombia; Turkey's Turkish Airlines and the Brazilian GOL. INAC explicitly stated that the concession to these airlines was revoked "for joining the state terrorism actions promoted by the Government of the United States". The Venezuelan official body reiterated that these companies suspended "unilaterally their commercial air operations to and from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela", based on a flight warning note without competence over the Venezuelan Flight Information Region (FIR Maiquetía). Last Friday, the United States Government issued a "flight warning" regarding Venezuela's Flight Information Region, warning of "a potential risk to aircraft at all altitudes". According to the United States, the warning responded to "the worsening of the security situation and the increased military activity", after which several international airlines decided to suspend their flights to and from Venezuela.
