The United Kingdom no longer shares intelligence information with the United States on suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean because it does not want to be complicit in US military attacks, considering that these are illegal, according to a CNN report this Tuesday.
British officials believe that the US military strikes, which have killed 76 people, violate international law, sources close to CNN told CNN.
The media also points out that the suspension of intelligence operations began more than a month ago.
For years, the United Kingdom – which controls several territories in the Caribbean where it maintains intelligence bases – has helped the US locate vessels suspected of transporting drugs so that the US Coast Guard could intercept them, sources told the outlet. This meant that the boats were stopped, boarded, their crew arrested and the drugs seized.
Intelligence information was routinely sent to the Joint Interagency Task Force South (JITAS), a Florida-based task force that includes representatives from several partner countries and works to reduce drug trafficking.
But the whole relationship changed after the United States began launching lethal attacks against vessels suspected of transporting drugs in September, according to the outlet. It was then that the United Kingdom expressed concern that the United States could use intelligence provided by the British to select targets.
The United Kingdom’s decision represents a significant break with one of its closest allies and important partner in the exchange of intelligence, at a time of conflict, moreover, on both sides of the Atlantic. The reason: the British public broadcaster, for having issued poorly edited statements by Trump referring to the deadly assault on the Capitol in 2021.
But London’s step is so significant that it already has a knock-on effect: as soon as the CNN news broke, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, ordered “to suspend the sending of communications and other dealings with US security agencies” until that country’s attacks against boats that supposedly transport drugs in the waters of the Caribbean and the Pacific cease.
“All levels of public force intelligence are ordered to suspend communications and other dealings with US security agencies,” Petro wrote in X.
The president explained that “such a measure will be maintained as long as the missile attack on boats in the Caribbean continues,” and added: “The fight against drugs must be subordinated to the human rights of the Caribbean people.”
In recent months, Petro has toughened his criticism of his American counterpart and has accused that country of committing “murders” and “war crimes” in its anti-drug offensive, first in the Caribbean and then in the Pacific.
Venezuela shields itself
In parallel to these developments, Venezuela is making a move: its president, this morning, ordered the creation of comprehensive defense commands – which will bring together citizens, soldiers and public officials – to “be prepared” in the event of an “armed struggle”, in a context marked by the “threat” that, according to the president, represents the US military deployment in the Caribbean Sea, near his country.
According to the US Navy, the Pentagon’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and its strike group – more than 4,000 sailors and dozens of tactical aircraft – arrived in Latin America this Tuesday.
The Venezuelan head of state gave the order by signing the Law of the Command for the Comprehensive Defense of the Nation, approved this Tuesday by the National Assembly (AN, Parliament), controlled by Chavismo, which establishes the objectives, characteristics and functions of these bodies.
“The order must be activated so that the comprehensive defense commands are instituted, structured and go to work to be prepared, if it were our turn as a republic, as a people, to go into armed struggle to defend this sacred heritage of the liberators, to be ready to win, to triumph, along the path of patriotism and bravery,” said Maduro.
In an event at the Miraflores Palace – headquarters of the Executive, in Caracas -, broadcast by the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), the leader of Chavismo pointed out that, in these last “fourteen weeks of imperial criminal madness” and “permanent psychological war”, the South American country has “taken steps” in the military and institutional spheres.
Faced with “these threats,” according to Maduro, the capacity of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) has been strengthened for “any scenario” and “the entire country has been prepared, in a perfect popular-military-police fusion,” with the objective, he maintained, of “being ready, ready and prepared” to “move from the unarmed struggle to the liberating and victorious armed struggle.”
In this process, he noted that “more than eight” million Venezuelans were enlisted in the Militia and there have been training days for citizens on “military techniques” and the deployment of the FANB “state by state.”
The new law, as read in its discussion process, indicates that a comprehensive defense command “is a dependency attached” to the Strategic Operational Command of the Armed Forces (Ceofanb) that “has the mission of integrating, planning, articulating, coordinating, directing, supervising and exercising control” of the so-called Management Bodies for Comprehensive Defense (ODDI).
Among its activities, it indicates “supporting military operations”, as well as “ensuring the continuity of productive activities and the operation of essential public services and critical infrastructure, once mobilization has been decreed.”
The Venezuelan Government announced a new military deployment that includes “land, air, naval, river means,” as well as weapons and other systems to confront what it considers “imperial threats.”
