New docs detail Colombian rebel ties

[Bacchus39]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080310/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/colombian_rebels;_ylt=AqG6qfQGowX7pPqi9fR031q3IxIF



BOGOTA, Colombia - Newly published documents released by Colombia's security forces claim the leftist presidents of Venezuela and Ecuador conspired for months with rebel insurgents who seek to overthrow the country's U.S.-allied government.



The 16 documents were published Sunday by the news magazine Semana. They also detail previously unknown relationships held or sought by Latin America's oldest and most potent rebel force, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

One is a letter to Libya's Moammar Gadhafi asking for $100 million to buy surface-to-air missiles. Another discusses an apparent effort by U.S. Democrats to have celebrated novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez mediate talks with the insurgents — possibly with former President Clinton's involvement.

There is no evidence the FARC ever obtained surface-to-air missiles, however. Attempts to reach Clinton and Garcia Marquez were unsuccessful.

The documents are signed by rebel leaders including Raul Reyes, the public face of the rebel group. Colombian officials say they were found on Reyes' computer after he was slain by commandos in a cross-border raid into Ecuador.

The electronic files were confirmed to The Associated Press as genuine by two senior Colombian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the politically controversial nature of the files.

There are letters describing rebel ties to drug traffickers — the guerrillas fund themselves mainly through the cocaine traide — and messages chronicling repeated meetings with senior Venezuelan police officials.

Two letters support allegations by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe that the rebels gave Ecuador's president an undisclosed amount of money during his 2006 campaign. Another discusses "secret, confidential relations" with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

It was not clear if the letters were ever sent to their intended recipients. Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, vehemently denies accepting funds from the insurgents.

"We do not fear being investigated over and over," he told reporters on Sunday.

Correa's leftist ally, the Chavez government, also called the documents phony. Chavez acknowledges communications with the FARC but said they have focused on his efforts to broker a swap of imprisoned rebels for dozens of guerrilla-held hostages.

The letters could complicate efforts to calm a regional crisis sparked by the raid that killed Reyes.

Venezuela said Sunday that it was restoring full diplomatic ties with Colombia, broken off to protest the March 1 commando raid that killed Reyes.

At a summit in the Dominican Republic on Friday, Chavez and Correa shook hands with Uribe, who apologized for the raid. A joint statement committed all parties to fight threats to national stability from "irregular or criminal groups," a reference to Colombian complaints that its two neighbors harbor FARC rebels.

At least one senior FARC commander, Ivan Marquez, is believed to live in Venezuela.

Colombia's police chief released a first set of documents from the laptop three days after Reyes was killed. The documents published Sunday provide a new level of detail.

An excerpt from an Oct. 12, 2006 letter describes deliberations on how much to give to the Correa campaign. The rebel's top leader, Manuel Marulanda, tells Reyes that fellow members of the FARC's ruling secretariat differ on whether to donate $20,000, $50,000 or $100,000. Reyes should quickly decide on the amount, he says.

A separate letter from Reyes to Marulanda dated Sept. 17 of that year discusses "support delivered to the campaign of Rafael Correa" but does not specify an amount or date.

A letter from Reyes to Gadhafi, dated Sept. 4, 2000, seeks "a loan of $100 million to be repaid over five years" for obtaining "weapons of greater reach. One of the priority needs we have today is to obtain Surface-to-Air missiles to repel and down combat planes."

A letter to Marulanda dated March 13, with no year specified, and penned by Marquez, says he and FARC leader, alias "Timochenko," received Gen. Henry Rangel Silva, chief of Venezuela's intelligence police.

An Oct. 3, 2007, missive from Marquez to Marulanda says Venezuela's justice minister, Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, suggested Marulanda travel to Caracas for a three-day meeting with Chavez.

Venezuelan government officials had no immediate comment on the new letters.

The FARC has turned over six hostages to Rodriguez Chacin this year in what is widely seen as a snub to Uribe for trying to stymie Chavez's mediation efforts with the rebels.

A mediation role for Garcia Marquez on behalf of U.S. Democrats is detailed in a letter dated Aug. 23 to members of the secretariat from the FARC's chief ideologue, Alfonso Cano.

"Garcia Marquez is in charge of this mediation with the FARC on behalf of the USA, and these people want Panama to be the country through which talks with the FARC occur."

The letter says "Clinton told Garcia Marquez in Cartagena, 'I want to have a personal effort. I want to help Colombia. An agreement with the FARC should be sought.'"

Garcia Marquez, 80, and Clinton became friends during the latter's presidency and are known to have met in Cartagena, Colombia, in March 2007 at an homage to the 1982 Nobel laureate in literature.

Efforts to reach Garcia Marquez through a spokeswoman and a fax sent to his Mexico City home were unsuccessful.

A recording at Clinton's press office in New York City asked that e-mail be sent to a spokeswoman, who did not immediately respond.

___

Associated Press writers Dan Keane in Bogota, Ian James in Caracas, Venezuela, and Gabriela Molina in Quito, Ecuador, contributed to this report.