Latin America

Chavez accused of backing Colombian guerrillas as Interpol says documents genuine

Article published on the 2008-05-16 Latest update 2008-05-17 11:29 TU

Hugo Chavez

A summit of European and Latin American leaders starts today in Peru. Sparks are expected to fly between Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. On Thursday the international police agency Interpol confirmed that Colombian troops had not tampered with computer files captured in a raid on a camp of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) in Ecuador on 1 March. Chavez dismissed the report as "a clown show".

Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said his organisation found no sign that the data had been disturbed, altered or corrupted in the three days before they were handed over to Colombian police forensic experts.

The nearly 38,000 files were on three laptop computers, two hard disk drives and three USB sticks used by Farc second-in-command Raul Reyes, who was killed in the raid.

Uribe claims that the documents provide conclusive proof that Venezuelan officials, including Chavez, helped Farc buy arms, including surface-to-air missiles, and funnelled millions of dollars into their coffers.

Colombia also claims that the Farc sought 50 kilograms of uranium for weapons use and helped Ecuador's left-wing President Rafael Correa win the 2006 election.

British Latin America analyst Colin Harding told RFI that the Venezuelans will claim that the results are part of an international conspiracy against the Chavez government.

The EU-Latin America summit is supposed to discuss climate change and poverty but left-right splits in Latin America may overshadow those debates.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was initially keen to go, has now sent Prime Minister François Fillon, while Britain's Gordon Brown and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi will also not attend.