Moscow/The tour operator Pegas Touristik, one of the largest companies in the sector in Russia, announced this Sunday that it will redirect tourists who were supposed to travel to Venezuela to Varadero, Cuba, following the announcement of the total closure of Venezuelan airspace by US President Donald Trump.
As indicated by the Association of Russian Tour Operators (ATOR) on its official website, Pegas Touristik informed the associated agencies that the Moscow-Porlamar flight scheduled for Monday was canceled and a Moscow-Varadero flight was enabled in its place.
ATOR explained this decision due to “the potential threat to the security of civil flights in Venezuelan airspace due to the conflict with the United States.”
Pegas will offer tourists the options of staying in hotels of the same level or even higher class in Varadero, or in case they do not want to rest in Cuba, deposit the amount for use in future reservations.
In case you do not want to rest in Cuba, deposit the amount for use in future reservations
The director of Pegas Touristik, Ana Podgórnaya, pointed out that flights to Venezuela will be restored as soon as the situation normalizes and reported that the Russian side will allocate a special flight for the return of all Russian tourists who are currently resting in Margarita.
The US president declared this Saturday, through his Truth social network, the total closure of Venezuelan airspace.
“To all airlines, pilots, drug traffickers and human traffickers: we ask you to consider that the airspace over and around Venezuela will remain completely closed,” Trump’s message reads.
Venezuela immediately repudiated “with absolute forcefulness” the message of the US president and criticized that he “unusually” tried to “give orders and threaten the sovereignty” of this nation.
Since September, the United States has maintained a naval and air deployment in the waters of the Caribbean Sea, near Venezuela, under the argument of combating drug trafficking, and has linked the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, with the Cartel of the Suns, a group allegedly linked to drug trafficking.
In this context, Washington has bombed several boats in the Caribbean, causing several deaths.
