Seized Laptop Key In S. American Conflict

Venezuela, Ecuador Deploy Troops To Colombian Border As Tensions Remain High

(CBS/AP)  A single laptop can reveal much, and so it is with the digital treasure chest that Colombian commandos found in the jungle quarters of slain rebel leader Raul Reyes.

Files in the computer seized in Saturday's raid into Ecuador that claimed the lives of Reyes and 23 of his comrades offer an intimate portrait of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's desire to undermine Colombia's U.S.-allied government.

Venezuela and Ecuador took their growing conflict with Colombia to the diplomatic front, seeking international condemnation on Wednesday of Colombia's deadly assault on a rebel base in Ecuador.

"Between 85 and 90 percent of the troops are situated," Gen. Jesus Gonzalez Gonzalez told reporters at a news conference, saying soldiers were largely sent to the border states of Zulia, Tachira and Apure.

The OAS ambassadors struggled over wording of a resolution on Tuesday, but Ecuador and Colombia finally reached agreement on Wednesday, said Colombian Ambassador Camilo Ospina. He said the document, to be released later, included a call for a commission headed by Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza to ease tensions.

Ecuador rejected a Colombian apology for the cross-border strike as insufficient, and sought to rally opposition during an emergency meeting of the Organization of American States, convened in Washington to help defuse one of South America's most volatile crises in years. Venezuela's justice minister declared that war "has already begun."

The two countries tightened their borders and were deploying thousands of troops, while Colombia on Tuesday pointed to documents found in a slain rebel leader's laptop that it called proof of stunning links between the leftist guerrillas and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

If authentic, the documents show that sympathies Chavez first aired publicly in January grew out of a relationship that dates back more than a decade. But Chavez is not one of the correspondents, and his sentiments mentioned in these documents are relayed solely through the rebels.

Venezuela says the documents are lies and fabrications. If they are, they are expertly done.

Not only do they offer an unprecedented glimpse into the rebels' mind-set, they also discuss diplomatic overtures from governments including the United States - cryptically - and France - explicitly.

They are signed electronically by the most powerful men in the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the hemisphere's oldest and most potent rebel movement.

Those signing the documents include:

- Reyes, the FARC's foreign minister and public face, whose killing struck a chilling blow to the group;

- Manuel Marulanda, the rebels' 77-year-old supreme leader;

- Jorge Briceno, their much-feared field marshal;

- and Ivan Marquez, the insurgents' apparent go-between with Chavez. Marquez is believed to live in Venezuela.

Copies of 13 documents were sent to reporters Tuesday by Colombia's national police chief, Gen. Oscar Naranjo. He revealed their existence Sunday as his government came under a withering diplomatic assault for violating Ecuador's territory with the raid.

They indicate that Chavez, seeking to raise the FARC's stature and relieve it of its international pariah status, shares their goal of isolating and discrediting Colombia's president, Alvaro Uribe.

But do they prove that Venezuela was actually financing the FARC's bid to overthrow a democratically elected government? That's not clear.

Naranjo alleges the "300," called the "dossier" in a Dec. 23 message signed by Marquez, refers to a $300 million gift from Chavez to the rebels.

In a Jan. 14 missive, Briceno discusses what to do with the "dossier."

"Who, where, when and how will we receive the dollars and store them?" he asks fellow members of the FARC's seven-man ruling secretariat.

Uribe has worked as no other Colombian president to defeat the FARC. So it's no surprise that in the Jan. 14 message, Briceno discusses a desire to undermine Uribe by making him cede a safe haven to the rebels for talks on a prisoner swap.

[brianbwb-2009]

"I have seen the FARC going from being a leftist guerrilla group with ideals to a group of common criminals whose main business is extortion, kidnapping and drug trafficking..." Posted by joecool240

Therein lies the eternal problem. Every group that starts with the goal of solving a real problem, then grows into a large popular entity, because many agree with the original tenets, soon devolves into a money hoarding organization. This is true whether the central idea is political, religious, or commercial.

Having said that, FARC started because of equally criminal corruption of the elite, it was, and still is a crisis that somehow must be addressed. The fact that FARC has become more of a criminal gang does not mean that the original intent is somehow invalidated.

[downsteamjim]

Chaves seeks peace. [It appears that in Spanish, peace means send the army to the border]. FARC started out political but soon found that cocaine was more profitable. Libs complain about Gitmo where terrorist caught on the battle field are kept and where the big problem is weight gain. Compare them to the innocents staved and mistreated by FARC.

[mcvet]

A policy of containment may be in order for Venezuela, not only from the OAS but from the UN to shut its oil from world sales until Chavez fulfills obligations not to fund or prosecute insurrection in neighboring countries.


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Posted by mjlewis6 at 01:55 PM : Mar 05, 2008
+ report abuse

That''s ASSUMING our CIA didn''t manufacture the "evidence". Keep in mind that the "evidence" was NOT found in Venezuala AND the patheric LOSER a few call a President does need something to take the focus off all his failures and Incompetence. We''d best wait until all is known here before we start bashing other countries don''t you think? Sieg Heil Bush!

[mcvet]

FARC is clearly a Marxist terrorist group.

YOu obviously are a friend of Marxist then.


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Posted by jimmyc1955 at 03:02 PM : Mar 05, 2008
+ report abuse

Must you Nazi''s always make these leaps? People discuss a situation and IF they show any leanings toward someone the "party" or the Fuhrer does not like you automaticly brand them as "Marist". Did you graduate from the Joe McCarthy School for the Nazi Youth! Sieg Heil Y''all

[joecool240]

The people like Prinzowales that defend the FARC as freedom fighters do not know what they are talking about. They probably have never been in Colombia and see how deeply unpopular the FARC are among the civilian population and rejected by 90% of Colombians. They probably have never read the news and see the pictures of the terror that FARC have brought to the country. They hold 1000 people kidnapped including Ingrid Betancourt a French citizen that president Sarkozy have pledged to be released. Tell the hostages that the FARC are freedom fighters if you have the decency to do it.
I was born in Colombia and have seen its civil war going on and on since the 1960''s. I have seen the FARC going from being a leftist guerrilla group with ideals to a group of common criminals whose main business is extortion, kidnapping and drug trafficking.
Please next time you Prinzeowales said something speak out of knowledge and not out of your hate for Bush

[noloyalisti]

No wonder there is conflict with Columbia. Any government the US is backing is a corrupt corporatist right wing government. How can anyone be fooled by the war profiteering right wing media of the US? They have been trying to demonize the Chavez regime for standing up to the right wing US.

How ignorant to call Chavez a terrorist when we have them right here. You can''t fight terror with terror and bush is the devil. Two very good and true quotes of Chavez.

[fpal1]

Chavez seizes oil assets in Venezuela from Conoco Phillips and Exxon Mobil. Chavez agrees to compensate the oil companies but wants Venezuelan control of Venezuelan oil.

The U.S. responds militarily through its agent Columbia and now has a "smoking gun" or "mushroom cloud" assertion against Chavez.

This stinks.

Lets see if the the Internet can prevent war or at least disseminate truth.

[singingrick]

By buying oil from Venezuala and the Middle East we are paying for the noose to hang ourselves. These people clearly hate us and would like to destroy us. Why not develope sustainable energy technologies that are available right now? We could be energy independent.

[jimmyc1955]

Prinzowhales - A freedom movement that makes and sells drugs, kills civilians, blows up judges, takes hostages into the jungle for years at a time.

FARC crossed from Venezuela into Columbia, commits terrorist acts, runs back to Venezuela and hides. This "Freedom movement" is heavily disliked by the populations of both Columbia and Venezuela as the recent demonstrations showed.

FARC is clearly a Marxist terrorist group.

YOu obviously are a friend of Marxist then.

[prinzowhales]

Looks like Afghanistan is not the only place one can find incriminating ''evidence'' just laying around... and its amazing just how well it fits into the same old round of fear mongering that the Washington Regime has been trying to peddle for years.

FARC is one of the oldest freedom movements in the region. The Regime wants to paint them as "terrorists"...just as Israel wants to paint Palestinians who resist the occupation as "terrorists"--and was even caught trying to set up a fake al Qaeda cell to prove it! The Washington Regime tries to paint the Iraqi freedom fighters as "terrorists" as well--as it, through its al Qaeda assets, fights a "dirty war" against the Iraqi people.

The Narco-terrorist regime in Bogota launched an attack against a fellow member of the OAS. Why?--Chavez''s peace initiative between FARC and Bogota was bearing fruit.

We are not fighting a ''drug war'' in Columbia... Our "Plan Columbia" is to bolster a criminal oligarchy to keep its heel on the necks of the Columbian working people. Billions of our tax dollars are going to the land of drug cartels and death squads.

[quetzal0666]

that will never happen, the U.S. Relies on Venezuela to keep the price of a gallon of Gas at its present level...