Venezuela has put into effect the regulations to implement a shootdown law approved 17 months ago. Within days a stream of announced shootdowns began to appear in the media, but most of these turned out to be the result of confusion with the previous practice of destroying suspected drug-carrying airplanes on the ground. On 2 October President Nicolás Maduro announced that the regulations for the implementation of Venezuela’s shootdown law (Ley de Control para la Defensa Integral del Espacio Aéreo) had been approved. He went on to issue a warning: "Let the international drugs trade know that from today any…