Dhaka, Nov. 30 -- US President Donald Trump warned on Saturday that the airspace above and near Venezuela should be considered closed, the latest escalation in a standoff with leftist leader Nicolas Maduro.

"To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers," Trump wrote on his Truth Social network, "please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY." The US president did not elaborate.

Caracas slammed the warning as a "colonialist threat" and called it the latest "extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people." Trump's administration is piling pressure on Venezuela, with a major military deployment in the Caribbean that includes the world's largest aircr...