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Laptop computers packed with evidence allegedly tying Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez to Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels pose a dilemma for the Bush Administration: The fact that the FARC is listed by Washington as a terrorist organization means the laptop data provide cause for the U.S. to add Chavez's government to its list of international sponsors of terrorism, as many conservatives on Capitol Hill are now demanding. But there are also numerous reasons the Administration could resist the temptation to turn up the heat on its most vocal challenger in Latin America...
...laptops were captured on March 1 when the Colombian army overran a FARC base in neighboring Ecuador, killing guerrilla boss Raul Reyes. Their contents, according to the Colombian government, extensively link Chavez with the rebels, even revealing an alleged Venezuelan plan to loan the FARC $250 million. Chavez denies funding the rebels and accuses Colombia of planting the laptops. But on Thursday, the Paris-based international police agency Interpol reported that its examination of the computers found no evidence that they had been tampered with. Colombia's conservative President Alvaro Uribe and the Bush Administration have issued hearty told...
...These are serious allegations about Venezuela supplying arms and support to a terrorist organization," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. Chavez, an unabashed FARC sympathizer, has dismissed the information from "the supposed computers of Raul Reyes" as fake. "This shameful show today," he said Thursday of the Interpol report, "is a new act of aggression...
Some observers say Correa is playing up accusations of U.S.-Colombia skulduggery in order to deflect charges that Ecuador harbors guerrillas known as the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, or FARC. Colombia has also accused Chavez of giving the FARC major financial support. Correa and Chavez deny the accusations; and Correa for his part insists that his military has removed numerous FARC camps from Ecuadorian territory...
Since taking office in 2002, Uribe has made impressive progress with Colombia's security and economy. But there is scant contact between him and the FARC, which is far from vanquished. "I'm killing myself every day wondering why dialogue is so impossible for all sides in this tragedy," says Betancourt's mother Yolanda Pulecio. At least Betancourt is a cause celebre in France. In their jungle encampments, America's hostages in Colombia are not just out of sight; to all but their families and supporters, they seem to be out of mind too. With reporting by Sibylla Brodzinsky/Bogota...