Colombia shows new rebel documents
May 9, 2008 8:30 PM (9 hrs ago) By FRANK BAJAK, AP
BOGOTA, Colombia (Map, News) - A newly disclosed set of documents that
Colombia's government says were recovered from a slain rebel's computers
indicate senior Venezuelan officials tried to help arm Colombia's main
guerrilla army.
The electronic documents - more than a dozen - were shown to The
Associated Press on Friday.
They detail alleged meetings between senior Venezuelan officials -
including that country's chief of military intelligence and interior
minister - and top leaders of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or FARC. Some discuss the procurement of weapons, others rebel
training for Venezuelan home defense forces.
Venezuelan officials maintain that Bogota is manipulating the truth.
EXAMINER.COM RELATED ARTICLES
Colombia's popular president hovers above scandal
Gas jumps above $3.67, oil passes $126 on Venezuela concerns
Former colonel gets 54-year term for massacre in Colombia
Colombia extradites warlord to US to face charges
US: Former Gitmo prisoner carries out recent attack in Iraq
"The whole thing is like a movie. Fiction is fiction, reality is
reality," Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela's ambassador to Washington, said
Friday.
The documents shown to the AP are among 11,000 that Colombian officials
say they found in laptops, external drives and memory sticks recovered
in a March 1 cross-border raid in Ecuador that killed rebel leader Raul
Reyes and 24 other people.
Some 2,000 of the documents had been erased but were recovered through
computer forensics, a senior Colombian official told the AP.
Colombia released several dozen documents immediately after the raid,
and since then has periodically shown more to reporters. A Washington
intelligence official vouched for the documents' authenticity, saying
they were delivered to U.S. intelligence agencies in March.
The U.S. and Colombian officials spoke on condition of anonymity because
of the matter's sensitivity.
The documents seen by the AP are all allegedly internal communications
between FARC commanders, chiefly messages from Ivan Marquez, the rebels'
main representative in Venezuela. Several discuss what Colombian
officials interpret as an open-ended Venezuelan loan of at least US$200
million to obtain arms.
Venezuela's socialist president, Hugo Chavez, has expressed ideological
sympathy for the FARC, but denies aiding the rebels militarily. He
consistently refers to "the supposed computer of Raul Reyes."
The peasant-based FARC has been trying to overthrow successive Colombian
governments for a half-century. But since taking office in 2002, current
President Alvaro Uribe has used a U.S.-backed military buildup to throw
the rebels off balance.
At Colombia's request, Interpol has examined the three laptops, two
external drives and three memory sticks and is expected to issue a
report on them next week.
On Friday, a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal about some of
the new documents suggested their disclosure would put more pressure on
the Bush administration to add Venezuela to a list of state sponsors of
terrorist groups.
Analysts call that unlikely because such a designation would mean
economic sanctions - and the U.S. relies too much on Venezuelan oil.
"There is not even consensus among the Republicans that it would be
helpful," said Adam Isacson of the Washington-based Center for
International Policy. "Also, having to get a special license for all
Venezuelan oil sales to the U.S. would throw the fuel market in a bit of
turmoil."
The price of crude rose above US$126 a barrel for the first time Friday
as investors questioned whether the Wall Street Journal report could
lead to a confrontation between Washington and Venezuela.
On Wednesday, Bush referred to Venezuela's alleged backing of the FARC
in a speech.
"Colombia faces a hostile and anti-American neighbor in Venezuela, where
the regime has forged an alliance with Cuba, collaborated with FARC
terrorists and provided sanctuary to FARC units," he said.
Chavez called that a lie in a speech Friday, saying: "It's good that
Comrade Bush is messing with us, because that means we're doing well."
http://www.examiner.com/a-1383947~Colombia_shows_new_rebel_documents.html
|
