Colombia issued a warning on Thursday after detecting serious irregularities in Venezuelan airspace, suggesting the disruptions could amount to technological sabotage linked to interference coming from the United States.
Transport Minister María Fernanda Rojas said that, in recent days, civil aviation authorities have identified spoofed signals and cyberattacks targeting the navigation and positioning systems used by civilian aircraft.
The interference involves Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) disruptions, specifically GPS jamming and spoofing, affecting the satellite navigation systems that commercial aircraft depend on for positioning, timing, and route management.
Independent maritime and aviation monitoring sources documented multiple episodes of severe GNSS interference concentrated near Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, and the eastern Caribbean waters between late October and early November 2025. By late November, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) issued safety alerts covering six Flight Information Regions in the area, noting "temporary or intermittent losses of GNSS signals."
Rojas noted that these disturbances appear to coincide with advisories issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which prompted airlines to scale back flights over Venezuelan territory.
On November 21, 2025, the FAA issued Security NOTAM KICZ A0012/25 citing "a potentially hazardous situation" due to "the worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around Venezuela," with warnings that GNSS interference effects could extend up to 250 nautical miles from the source.
The minister emphasized, however, that the FAA notice contained no technical evidence to justify such measures and instead "reflected a political maneuver that violates the Chicago Convention," the international treaty governing civil aviation.
Rojas cautioned that the interference may not be limited to Venezuela and could potentially affect neighboring countries, including Colombia. She said the matter will be reported directly to President Gustavo Petro and raised before multilateral bodies such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Colombia's invocation of the Chicago Convention touches a fundamental principle of international aviation law. Article 1 of the 1944 Convention states unequivocally that every contracting state has "complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory."
The Convention's Article 3 bis, added in 1984, explicitly prohibits the use of weapons against civil aircraft in flight and establishes that measures affecting another state's airspace must be proportionate and non-threatening to aviation safety.
Luis Alfonso Martínez, Colombia's acting Civil Aviation Authority director, confirmed that Bogotá remains in continuous contact with Caracas and with the airlines affected by the temporary suspension of Satena and Wingo flights.
He added that Venezuelan carriers have offered to maintain service on the disrupted routes, while international insurers have indicated they are prepared to provide operational guarantees should Colombian airlines choose to resume flights.