Thousands of tourists are trapped in the Caribbean after flights were halted in the wake of the United States' capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

An American tourist, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Daily Mail he was sleeping peacefully when he was awoken by a text alert from Delta Air Lines saying his flight from St. Thomas to New York was canceled and he had to reschedule. 

Groggily, he got up and called the airline's support number, entering a 40-minute hold line with thousands of other tourists trying to get the next flight out, most without a clue of the real reason why. 

While scrolling through the news, he discovered that the US military had struck Venezuela, roughly 600 miles away from the US Virgin Island he was staying on to ring in the new year. 

'I didn't put two-and-two together,' the tourist told the Daily Mail. 'I was like: "Okay, that's pretty wild that there's a strike, but I just continued being on hold.'  

He wouldn't connect the two events until a Delta employee told him he wouldn't be getting off St. Thomas until at least Sunday as the Federal Aviation Administration had closed all airspace around Venezuela until at least tomorrow morning. 

'It seems like a pretty drastic move to take the axe to all flights.' 

The tourist and others fear the 24-hour delay may become an indefinite rolling one as the dust continues to settle following Saturday morning's shock strike in Caracas. 

An American tourist, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Daily Mail he was sleeping peacefully when he was awoken by a text alert from Delta Air Lines saying his flight from St. Thomas to New York was canceled and he had to reschedule

He would later find out his flight was canceled due to President Donald Trump's strike on Venezuela just hours earlier, where the US military captured President Nicolas Maduro 

That tourist says he and his partner have been forced to shell out $1,600 for an extra night at the Westin Beach Resort & Spa - much more than the per-night cost of their original booking.  

And he's unsure if Delta will compensate him. When contacted by the Daily Mail, Delta said it would issue a travel waiver to passengers, but did not specify if it would cover accommodations for stranded passengers. 

'I am worried about being stuck here and incurring additional costs,' the tourist told the Daily Mail. 'You know, it's not cheap... It's not fun.

'I'll consider myself lucky and happy if I get off tomorrow. If I don't get off tomorrow, then I'll start to become a little more stressed.

'Then you're stuck here until God knows when,' he continued. 'I don't think anyone knows how long the airspace is going to be closed.'

He landed on the popular vacation spot on December 29 and had planned to be on a flight to New York City at 5:35pm local time today. He's now rebooked on the same flight for tomorrow.