Bogota - Colombian police charged Monday that they had found evidence on rebel computers that Venezuela has been funding Colombian leftist rebels and that the rebels were trading in drugs and uranium. Colombian Police Director Oscar Naranjo charged that leftist populist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had given 300 million dollars to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), citing evidence found on computers seized during a lethal cross-border raid into Ecuador on Saturday.
In the raid, the Colombian military killed FARC's number-two Raul Reyes, triggering a regional crisis that has seen Ecuador and Venezuela move troops to the Colombian border.
The computers also yielded evidence that FARC had traded 50 kilogrammes of uranium and sent illegal drugs to Mexico, Naranjo said.
During four decades of rebel conflict in Colombia, FARC has long been known to fund its operations through the drug trade. But the allegations it has been trading in uranium represent a new charge.
Information about Chavez's financial contributions was found in a copy of a report on the computer that had been submitted to the rebel leadership by FARC leader Ivan Marquez, following a two-day meeting with Venezuelan Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, the police chief said.
"In the same way that there is information compromising Ecuadorian Security Minister Gustavo Larrea (in dealings with FARC), there is information compromising Rodriguez Chacin. We have found photographs of people who met with the rebels," Naranjo said.
He also noted that FARC gave some 50,000 dollars to Chavez when he was in prison in the 1990s, following a failed military coup in Venezuela.
According to Naranjo, there is a letter from top FARC leader Manuel Marulanda to Chavez, in which the rebel leader vows to support the Venezuela militarily in case of an attack by the United States.
"That shows the implicit closeness and alliance, in military terms, between FARC and the Venezuelan government," Naranjo said.
The killing of Reyes led to a diplomatic crisis between Colombia and Ecuador, and worsened the pre-existing tension between Bogota and Venezuela.
According to an earlier report by the Colombian government, a letter was found in Reyes' computers in which the rebel leader informs the FARC leadership of his contacts with Larrea.
However, the Ecuadorian government denied the allegations and claimed that Colombia is only seeking to distract attention from the gravity of the violation of Ecuadorian sovereignty that it incurred in to kill Reyes.
