Interpol said Thursday it found no evidence of tampering in computers seized from a slain leftist rebel, discrediting Venezuela’s assertions that the files are bogus and giving Colombia the international backing it sought.
Interpol’s findings are sure to increase pressure on Venezuela’s socialist president, Hugo Chavez, to explain documents indicating his government was financing and arming the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. And more revelations are likely to emerge, since Interpol also turned over to Colombia 983 files it decrypted.
“No one can ever question whether or not the Colombian government tampered with the seized FARC computers,” said Interpol’s secretary general, Ronald Noble, adding: “We are absolutely certain that the computer exhibits that our experts examined came from a FARC terrorist camp.”
Colombian commandos recovered the three Toshiba Satellite laptop computers, two external hard drives and three USB memory sticks after destroying the rebel camp just across the border in Ecuador. FARC foreign minister Raul Reyes and 24 others were killed in the March 1 raid.
Chavez has called the documents fakes, mocking Colombia’s revelations about “the supposed computer of Raul Reyes” and questioning how a computer could survive a bombardment. He denies arming or funding the FARC, though he openly sympathizes with Latin America’s most powerful rebel army.
Venezuela’s embassy in Washington accused U.S. and Colombian officials of using the Interpol report to “spread the most reckless and irresponsible accusations” in a coordinated campaign that “closely resembles the steps usually taken by the Bush administration in order to generate … instability and wars in other countries.”
But Interpol was emphatic that the documents are authentic, and said the computers were found in metal cases that protected them during the raid.
“Mr. Reyes is now dead. But they were definitely his computers, his disks, his hardware,” Noble said.
Interpol also gave Colombia a major bonus after…
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