PARIS: The US military operation against Venezuelan alleged drug traffickers coupled with threats by Donald Trump for a ground assault against President Nicolas Maduro have troubled European powers who retain strategically located territories in the Caribbean, observers say.
The concern of France, the Netherlands and the UK is such that they have started limiting intelligence sharing with Washington about the Caribbean over worries it could be used for strikes that would be considered illegal in their countries, according to officials and sources who spoke to AFP.
The UK retains small overseas territories in the Caribbean from the colonial era, while the large islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe as well as French Guiana on the South American mainland are now officially part of France.
The Netherlands is the most geographically implicated, with three islands off the coast of Venezuela dubbed the ABC — Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao — all part of the kingdom.
Venezuela has accused Washington of seeking regime change in Caracas with its military build-up, including an aircraft carrier group, warships and several stealth jets.
Washington accuses Maduro of leading a “terrorist” drug cartel, a charge he denies. Since September, US forces have killed at least 83 people via air strikes on boats accused of ferrying drugs in international waters, according to an AFP tally of publicly released figures.
The United States has released no details to back up its claims that the people targeted in both the Caribbean and eastern Pacific in the more than 20 strikes were traffickers.
Trump has said he believes Maduro’s days were numbered and on Monday refused to rule out boots on the ground while adding he was open to talks with the leftist leader.
“The Dutch are concerned about their ABC islands... located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) off the coast of Venezuela,” a French military official said, asking not to be named.
They “would find themselves on the front line” in the event of war, a European military source added, also asking not to be named as they were not authorized to speak on the record.
- ‘Not currently giving intelligence’ -
With few options in the face of Trump’s resolve, these three countries have decided to stop sharing certain intelligence with Washington, multiple sources said.
“We are particularly vigilant regarding the politicization of our services and human rights violations,” Erik Akerboom, director of the Dutch civilian intelligence and counterintelligence service, told the newspaper De Volkskrant.
“No European country, France included, will send operational intelligence to the Americans in the current situation if they could use it as a basis for a military strike on a ship,” a senior French police official, Dimitri Zoulas, head of the OFAST anti-drug service, told Radio Caraibes (RCI).
This position has not been publicly confirmed by French authorities. But a security source said: “It is 100 percent clear that Europeans are not currently giving any intelligence to the United States that could lead to a strike.”
In the UK, the Times reported that attorney general Richard Hermer, the government’s top legal adviser, told ministers to cut off intelligence sharing over fears Trump could “assassinate” drug dealers in the Caribbean.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this month dismissed reports the UK had stopped sharing such intelligence as “fake news.”
- ‘Not a fundamental change’ -
Richard Dearlove, former head of the British MI6 foreign intelligence service, told AFP the situation was not unique and avoided Europeans being complicit in an action that was perhaps legal in an American jurisdiction but not in their countries.
“It doesn’t affect the overall intelligence exchange. It’s a local and a specific issue. And it’s occurred before in my experience,” he said.
Europeans are aware of the risk of antagonizing the Trump administration.
“Before saying no to the United States and making it known, we have to think twice, because they provide a lot” of information to their allies, said a source from a European intelligence service.
But the Europeans’ contribution to American intelligence work in the field is very limited, said a former US military officer who worked in counter-narcotics operations in the region.
The Europeans’ restraint has a “theoretical” effect because the United States doesn’t need the information, according to the French security source.
Dearlove insisted that as it is “strictly speaking a legal problem” this should not affect the wider picture of transatlantic intelligence sharing.
“The CIA understands this extremely well. It’s a well known area which is sometimes problematic but it does not indicate a fundamental change in the intelligence relationship,” he said.
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Troubled by US Venezuela operation, Europeans limit intel sharing
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Troubled by US Venezuela operation, Europeans limit intel sharing
- The US military operation against Venezuela coupled with threats by Trump have troubled European powers who retain strategically located territories in the Caribbean, observers say
From the sky, NGO searches for west African migrant boats in distress
Every hour is crucial when searching for distressed west African migrant boats in the Atlantic, where the long route and harsh weather easily spell disaster, a nonprofit that conducts aerial surveillance told AFP during a recent mission.
AFP rode along with the organisation Humanitarian Pilots Initiative (HPI) as it raced to locate several missing pirogues -- long, rickety canoes -- that had left The Gambia but never showed up at their final destination.
The mission: search an area larger than Switzerland, from hundreds of metres (yards) in the air, with an aim of rendering aid before it is too late.
"People could be dead or dying from dehydration, heat stroke or any other conditions," pilot Omar El Manfalouty told AFP.
Migrants departing from west Africa and travelling up the Atlantic are usually trying to reach Europe via the Canary Islands off northwest Africa.
The Spanish archipelago is the jumping off point for their continued journey onward to the European continent.
With many recent departures taking place from further south in The Gambia and Guinea, migrants are now spending longer at sea and facing more hardships.
More than 3,000 migrants died in 2025 while attempting to reach Spain clandestinely, according to the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras.
While HPI has operated since 2016 in the central Mediterranean, it is a relative newcomer to the Atlantic.
In the Mediterranean, it has already helped spot more than 1,000 boats, alerting international NGO rescue ships which then go and help.
AFP flew with HPI on its third mission in nine months in the Atlantic, riding for several days in the NGO's Beechcraft Baron 58 nicknamed "Seabird".
- 'Vast area' -
"The Atlantic Ocean is huge. It's a vast area and it's impossible to cover it in its entirety," said El Manfalouty.
"We brought our longest-range aircraft here and we're focusing on the area which other actors cannot reach, approximately between 300 and 500 nautical miles from the Canaries," he said.
Once HPI spots a vessel, it sends an alert for emergency response to nearby merchant ships so that they can provide immediate support. From there, Spain's maritime safety and rescue authority, Salvamento Maritimo, takes over.
"Having an aircraft in the area to support from the air with 10 times the speed (of boats) makes a lot of sense," said Samira, the mission's tactical coordinator who asked not to use her last name due to threats the NGO receives in several European countries.
One morning in January the crew received an alert from another NGO that a boat which had departed The Gambia carrying 103 people, including nine women and three children, was missing. HPI quickly mobilised.
The trip from The Gambia to the Canaries is 1,000 nautical miles, meaning there is a vast region where the boat might be, Samira said. On her tablet, she plotted out several routes.
- Eyes glued -
Once the plane reached the patrol zone, the aircraft descended below cloud cover and followed straight, parallel trajectories. Three crew members kept their eyes glued to the windows for the pirogue.
While in the air they received word of another vessel: a second boat, which left The Gambia seven days earlier with 137 people on board.
With the strong winds and swell, "the boats may have drifted", Samira said.
Boats have previously drifted so far as to reach the Caribbean or South America without any survivors.
After three consecutive days of flying, the crew had covered nearly 3,800 nautical miles, but there was still no trace of the two boats.
As of publication, neither of the vessels had reached the Canaries.
Near a migrant reception centre in Las Palmas, a major city in the Canary Islands, Ousmane Ly, a recently arrived 25-year-old Senegalese man, gazed at the beach. Other migrants, also from Senegal, were taking advantage of the sunny day to take photos.
The joy of having made it outweighed the difficulty some were having walking after days crammed into a pirogue.
Their hands, arms and legs bore wounds caused by the salt water.
He recounted how once they boarded the pirogue, he and the other passengers were covered with a tarpaulin: "I closed my eyes and thought of my mother," he said.
The tarpaulin -- used to protect them from the sun during the day and cold at night -- was removed only 10 days later, when the boat was rescued by Salvamento Maritimo.
There were 108 people on board, two of whom were found dead during the rescue.
AFP rode along with the organisation Humanitarian Pilots Initiative (HPI) as it raced to locate several missing pirogues -- long, rickety canoes -- that had left The Gambia but never showed up at their final destination.
The mission: search an area larger than Switzerland, from hundreds of metres (yards) in the air, with an aim of rendering aid before it is too late.
"People could be dead or dying from dehydration, heat stroke or any other conditions," pilot Omar El Manfalouty told AFP.
Migrants departing from west Africa and travelling up the Atlantic are usually trying to reach Europe via the Canary Islands off northwest Africa.
The Spanish archipelago is the jumping off point for their continued journey onward to the European continent.
With many recent departures taking place from further south in The Gambia and Guinea, migrants are now spending longer at sea and facing more hardships.
More than 3,000 migrants died in 2025 while attempting to reach Spain clandestinely, according to the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras.
While HPI has operated since 2016 in the central Mediterranean, it is a relative newcomer to the Atlantic.
In the Mediterranean, it has already helped spot more than 1,000 boats, alerting international NGO rescue ships which then go and help.
AFP flew with HPI on its third mission in nine months in the Atlantic, riding for several days in the NGO's Beechcraft Baron 58 nicknamed "Seabird".
- 'Vast area' -
"The Atlantic Ocean is huge. It's a vast area and it's impossible to cover it in its entirety," said El Manfalouty.
"We brought our longest-range aircraft here and we're focusing on the area which other actors cannot reach, approximately between 300 and 500 nautical miles from the Canaries," he said.
Once HPI spots a vessel, it sends an alert for emergency response to nearby merchant ships so that they can provide immediate support. From there, Spain's maritime safety and rescue authority, Salvamento Maritimo, takes over.
"Having an aircraft in the area to support from the air with 10 times the speed (of boats) makes a lot of sense," said Samira, the mission's tactical coordinator who asked not to use her last name due to threats the NGO receives in several European countries.
One morning in January the crew received an alert from another NGO that a boat which had departed The Gambia carrying 103 people, including nine women and three children, was missing. HPI quickly mobilised.
The trip from The Gambia to the Canaries is 1,000 nautical miles, meaning there is a vast region where the boat might be, Samira said. On her tablet, she plotted out several routes.
- Eyes glued -
Once the plane reached the patrol zone, the aircraft descended below cloud cover and followed straight, parallel trajectories. Three crew members kept their eyes glued to the windows for the pirogue.
While in the air they received word of another vessel: a second boat, which left The Gambia seven days earlier with 137 people on board.
With the strong winds and swell, "the boats may have drifted", Samira said.
Boats have previously drifted so far as to reach the Caribbean or South America without any survivors.
After three consecutive days of flying, the crew had covered nearly 3,800 nautical miles, but there was still no trace of the two boats.
As of publication, neither of the vessels had reached the Canaries.
Near a migrant reception centre in Las Palmas, a major city in the Canary Islands, Ousmane Ly, a recently arrived 25-year-old Senegalese man, gazed at the beach. Other migrants, also from Senegal, were taking advantage of the sunny day to take photos.
The joy of having made it outweighed the difficulty some were having walking after days crammed into a pirogue.
Their hands, arms and legs bore wounds caused by the salt water.
He recounted how once they boarded the pirogue, he and the other passengers were covered with a tarpaulin: "I closed my eyes and thought of my mother," he said.
The tarpaulin -- used to protect them from the sun during the day and cold at night -- was removed only 10 days later, when the boat was rescued by Salvamento Maritimo.
There were 108 people on board, two of whom were found dead during the rescue.
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