By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) – American Airlines said on Thursday it plans to resume daily service to Venezuela pending government approval and subject to security assessments, just weeks after the U.S. military seized the country’s leader.
U.S. President Donald Trump earlier on Thursday asked the Transportation Department to lift restrictions that currently bar U.S. flights after a discussion with the country’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez.
“American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela, and they’ll be safe there,” Trump said.
American suspended service in 2019 after the U.S. barred flights. The United States earlier this month attacked Venezuela and seized the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, in a military operation.
American, which started operating in Venezuela in 1987, said the flights will provide the opportunity for business, leisure and humanitarian travel to the region. It was the largest U.S. airline in the country before the suspension of flights.
The Federal Aviation Administration will need to conduct assessments before resumption of flights, which are not likely to begin for a few months.
On January 16, the FAA warned airlines to exercise caution when flying over Mexico, Central America and parts of South America, citing the risks of potential military activities and GPS interference.
The FAA said it had issued Notices to Airmen covering Mexico and Central American countries, as well as Ecuador, Colombia and portions of airspace within the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Tensions between the U.S. and regional leaders have ramped up since the Trump administration mounted a large-scale military buildup in the southern Caribbean.
Trump said earlier this month that drug cartels were running Mexico and suggested the U.S. could strike land targets to combat them, in one of a series of threats to deploy U.S. military force against cartels.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has repeatedly warned that any unilateral military action by the U.S. in Mexico would constitute a grave violation of the nation’s sovereignty. At the same time, she has agreed on bilateral security cooperation with the U.S. to avoid Mexico being in Trump’s crosshairs.
Last month, a JetBlue passenger jet bound for New York took evasive action to avoid a mid-air collision with a U.S. Air Force tanker plane near Venezuela that did not have its transponder activated.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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