« on: March 03, 2008, 06:51:50 PM »
BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia’s police chief on Monday said documents found on a slain rebel’s laptop computer suggest Venezuela recently paid $300 million to Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, perhaps in exchange for the release of six hostages.
Other documents show the rebels had appeared interested in buying uranium, Gen. Oscar Naranjo said at an explosive news conference where he lashed out at Venezuela and Ecuador for the financial and political support they have provided to Colombia’s leftist rebels.
“When they mention negotiations for 50 kilos of uranium this means that the FARC are taking big steps in the world of terrorism to become a global aggressor. We’re not talking of domestic guerrilla but transnational terrorism,†said Naranjo, without giving more details.
Naranjo said the $300 million was mentioned in a Feb. 14 message in the laptop of Raul Reyes, who was killed Saturday in a Colombian military attack just across the border at a rebel camp in Ecuador. Colombia was investigating to determine if the money was intended as payment for Chavez brokering the rebels’ recent release of hostages, he said.
Naranjo said other documents suggest Ecuador’s president is deepening relations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia as well — a claim Ecuador denied — and that Manuel “Sureshot†Marulanda, the top FARC leader, is closely allied with the Venezuelan government.
“This implies more than cozying up, but an armed alliance between the FARC and the Venezuelan government,†he said.
Did Chavez get FARC money earlier?
Another document in Reyes’ laptop suggests that rebels have had financial ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez since 1992.
More:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23435878/
Logged
Those who would trade their liberty for temporary security will get neither. --Benjamin Franklin.
