Consider airspace around Venezuela closed, Trump says

Venezuela has condemned US President Donald Trump's statement that the airspace around the country should be considered closed.

The country's foreign ministry called Trump's comments "another extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people".

The US does not have legal authority to close another country's airspace and the Venezuelan statement accused Trump of making a "colonialist threat".

The US has built its military presence in the area and carried out at least 21 strikes on boats it says were carrying drugs, killing more than 80. It has not provided evidence and Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro says the US moves are an attempt to oust him.

It has insisted that the deployment - the largest by the US in the region since it invaded Panama in 1989 - is to combat drug trafficking.

Trump warned on Thursday that US efforts to halt Venezuelan drug trafficking "by land" would begin "very soon".

The Venezuelan government believes the aim of the US is to depose the left-wing Maduro, whose re-election last year was denounced by the Venezuelan opposition and many nations as rigged.

Fellow left-wing President Gustavo Petro of Colombia - who has also faced US sanctions - has said he believed the US was using "violence to dominate" Latin America, though other leaders in the region have welcomed Trump's stance.

The US has also designated Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns – a group it alleges is headed by Maduro – as a foreign terrorist organisation.

Labelling an organisation as a terrorist group gives US law enforcement and military agencies broader powers to target and dismantle it.

Venezuela's foreign ministry has "categorically, firmly, and absolutely rejected" the designation.