Bogota - The Colombian government thinks Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered leftist Colombian rebels a "stake in oil companies," Colombia's High Commissioner for Peace Luis Carlos Restrepo said Tuesday. On Saturday, Colombian forces attacked a camp of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Ecuadorian territory, killing the rebel group's number two, Raul Reyes. The attack caused great tension between Bogota, on the one hand, and Venezuela and Ecuador, on the other.
Restrepo added that the alleged offer by Chavez springs from the information that Colombian authorities found at the camp where Reyes was killed.
"The report says Venezuela committed to handing 300 million dollars over to FARC. Besides, it talks of commercial commitments through a stake in companies related to oil," Restrepo said.
These comments coincided with a report published Tuesday by the Colombian daily El Tiempo, referring to specific contents of the three computers found at the FARC camp.
According to the report, the rebel leader Ivan Marquez, who met with Chavez last year in Caracas when the Venezuelan was formally a mediator in the Colombian conflict, told the FARC leadership of the offers he received from Chavez.
These included, the report said, granting the rebels a portion of the oil produced in the oil-rich Venezuela for FARC to sell for its own benefit.
"He (Chavez) offered us the chance of a business in which we receive a portion of oil to sell it abroad, which would leave us juicy benefits," Marquez was quoted as saying.
"Another offer: selling petrol to Colombia or in Venezuela," the rebel added.
On Monday, Colombian Police Director Oscar Naranjo charged that the leftist populist Chavez had given 300 million dollars to FARC. The computers also yielded evidence that FARC had traded 50 kilos of uranium and sent illegal drugs to Mexico, Naranjo said.
However, Venezuelan Vice President Ramon Carrizales denied the allegations.
"We are used by now to the lies of the Colombian government. For me whatever they say is totally unimportant. Now they can make up anything to try and get out of the violation of Ecuadorian territory that they committed," Carrizales told reporters Monday.
On Monday, Ecuador formally broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia, while Venezuela has withdrawn its diplomats from Bogota and expelled the Colombian ambassador in Caracas.
