The FCDO updated its Venezuela travel advice on 2 September 2026, noting the resumption of limited commercial flight operations from Maiquetia Simon Bolivar International Airport, which serves Caracas, from 1 September. For anyone planning access into the country that is a practical shift worth confirming rather than assuming, because the advice around it has not softened.
The FCDO advises against all travel to parts of Venezuela, including the country's border areas, the Orinoco Mining Arc region of Bolivar state, Delta Amacuro state and Zulia state. It advises against all but essential travel to the rest of the country. That places the whole of Venezuela under a travel warning of one level or another, with the most severe applying to the border and mining regions where armed groups operate.
The detail an operator should carry is on detention. The FCDO states that some foreign nationals, including Europeans, have been detained and accused of terrorism in Venezuela, and warns that in some cases the relevant embassy has not been able to support those detained. Consular support can be severely limited. The advisory also notes that armed groups are active in the border states of Zulia, Tachira and Apure and in the Orinoco Mining Arc.
For an operator the read is that reopening air access to Caracas does not change the risk on the ground. The arbitrary detention of foreign nationals, with limited or no consular recourse, is the standing hazard that shapes any task, and the border and mining regions are advise-against-all-travel ground to route around rather than mitigate. Confirm the Maiquetia flight position directly before committing a movement plan, and build detention risk, not just crime risk, into duty-of-care planning for anyone travelling in.
