Venzuela in the FARC tank

Washington Post:

High-ranking officials in Venezuela offered to help Colombian guerrillas obtain surface-to-air missiles meant to change the balance of power in their war with the Colombian government, according to internal rebel documents.

Venezuelan officials served as middlemen with Australian arms dealers and agreed to help the rebel commanders travel to the Middle East to receive missile training, according to files on computer hard drives seized by Colombian authorities and shown to The Washington Post. In interviews, Colombian officials said they have no evidence that the guerrillas obtained the antiaircraft missiles, but added that Venezuelan authorities appear to have provided light arms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

The disclosures have already started to reverberate in the Bush administration and among Latin America policymakers on Capitol Hill, where a small group of Republicans has proposed classifying Venezuela, a major oil exporter to the United States, as a state sponsor of terrorism. The United States and Europe long ago blacklisted the rebel organization, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, as a terrorist group.

At Colombia's request, Interpol, the international police agency, has completed an extensive forensic analysis on the hard drives, which were confiscated in an army raid on a rebel camp on March 1. On Thursday, Interpol is expected to announce that there is no evidence that anyone tampered with the hard drives after they were seized, though the agency cannot vouch for the veracity of the rebels' claims, according to an American official knowledgeable about the study.

The documents are the latest to be released among 16,000 files and photographs being reviewed by Colombian and U.S. officials that describe meetings between FARC commanders and Venezuelan officials, including Interior Minister Ramón Rodríguez Chacín; the military intelligence chief, Gen. Hugo Carvajal; other top generals such as Clíver Alcalá; and Amilkar Figueroa, who organizes Venezuela's civilian militias.

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"What they show is that the level of cooperation was much more than what we had earlier estimated," Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said in an interview this week. "We knew there was a level of cooperation, but not as intense, not as close and not as effective as we're now seeing."

Former FARC guerrillas who operated in southern Colombia and along the Venezuelan border said in interviews that their units received Venezuelan arms and munitions. Colombian intelligence officials also described the funneling of weaponry, with one official providing documents showing how Colombia's military has confiscated more than 210,000 rounds of Venezuelan-made munitions in FARC camps since 2003.

"We believe they act in Venezuela, fully protected, and that from there they prepare terrorist acts," one intelligence operative in Colombia said of the FARC. "There is fluid communication between the two."

Santos, in some of his strongest comments to date, said Colombia has frequently provided the Caracas government with information about the activities of the FARC inside Venezuela. That information has included the locations of senior members of the group's leadership. "We have in various opportunities told them about guerrilla chiefs in Venezuela, about the presence of narco-trafficking in Venezuela, of camps in Venezuela, and they have never responded," he said.

In Washington, officials are worried that Venezuela's aid to the FARC, if proved, could threaten the progress Colombia has made against the FARC. "I think the obvious problem is that a serious threat to both Colombia and a terrorist threat in the region has apparently had pretty direct support from Chávez and his government," John P. Walters, the White House drug policy chief, said by phone from Washington.

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One mid-level guerrilla who recently deserted described how Venezuelan forces provided the ammunition the FARC needs for its assault rifles, as well as explosives. The guerrilla, who operated inside Venezuela's border, said Venezuelan authorities also provided sanctuary to guerrilla units escaping Colombian attacks.

"It's a state policy. What we were told was that Chávez liked to see us expand in Venezuela and in Colombia," said the guerrilla, who spoke on the condition his name not be used.

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Since the laptop was discovered Chavez has gone through the pretense of stopping FARC drug flights which use Venezuela as a way station on flights to North Africa and then to Europe. I think his main concern is that the laptop would try Chavez to the drug trade and make him subject to indictment. He is probably worried more about that than he is the gun running for narco terrorist. In other words he is more concerned about a lawfare offensive than a warfare offensive.

The story goes through all of the trade that would be disturbed if Chavez is designated a state sponsor of terrorism. He was probably counting on that before doing the deals. He is still paranoid about a US effort to make war against him, and has asked FARC to help train his forces in insurgency warfare. Judging by their performance in recent years against the Colombians, it is hard to see how he would get his money's worth.