MEXICO – The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued notices to airlines, urging them to “exercise caution” over Mexico and other Central American countries, as well as Ecuador and Colombia, due to “military activities”.
On Friday, the FAA released a series of advisories that come amid an ongoing US military buildup in the Latin America region, including US military attacks on Venezuela, and US President Donald Trump’s warning to Cuba and threats of strikes against drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia, leaving many in the region on edge.
The FAA issued warnings of a “potentially hazardous situation” in a number of areas, including above parts of the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortes. The warnings issued on Friday will last 60 days, the FAA said. Last month, a JetBlue passenger jet bound for New York took evasive action to avoid a midair collision with a US Air Force tanker plane near Venezuela.
JetBlue Flight 1112 had departed the Caribbean nation of Curacao and was flying about 64kilometres (40 miles) off the coast of Venezuela when the Airbus plane reported encountering the Air Force jet, which did not have its transponder activated. Following the US military’s January 3 attack on Caracas and the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Trump has raised the possibility of other military actions in the area, including against Colombia.
Trump said that cartels were running Mexico and that the US “will now start hitting land” to combat them, in one of a series of threats to deploy US military force against drug traffickers. After the attack on Venezuela, the FAA restricted flights throughout the Caribbean, which forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights by major airlines. (Aljazeera)
