U.S. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump is­sued a warn­ing to air­lines, pi­lots, and what he de­scribed as "drug deal­ers and hu­man traf­fick­ers" to con­sid­er all air­space over and around Venezuela "closed."

In the short mes­sage on his Truth So­cial plat­form, Trump de­clared the air­space "closed in its en­tire­ty" and signed the post with "PRES­I­DENT DON­ALD J. TRUMP." He did not pro­vide ad­di­tion­al de­tails, con­text, or au­thor­i­ty un­der which he was is­su­ing the warn­ing, prompt­ing ques­tions among ob­servers and avi­a­tion fol­low­ers.

The post comes amid ris­ing ten­sions in the re­gion and on­go­ing po­lit­i­cal dis­putes sur­round­ing Venezuela.