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Analysis: Linking Venezuela and the FARC

Council on Foreign Relations

May 21, 2008
Author: Stephanie Hanson

Roughly two months after Colombian forces crossed into Ecuador to kill a FARC guerilla leader, INTERPOL certified the authenticity of eight FARC laptops seized by the Colombian government. The finding strengthened Bogota's claims of a link between Venezuela and the FARC guerilla group. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez rebuffed the forensic analysis and, with characteristic flourish, called the head of INTERPOL a "gringo policeman." Yet leaked emails (Miami Herald) from the laptops indicate evidence of Venezuelan financial and arms support for the FARC. If substantiated, these reports could deal a serious blow to regional security and further undermine U.S. relations with oil-rich Venezuela.

Despite the troubling signs, experts warn against hasty conclusions. The leaked emails rely solely on correspondence among FARC rebels, they note, not messages between Venezuelan officials and the FARC. Adam Isacson, director of the Center for International Policy's Colombia program, suggests more solid evidence is necessary before considering international action. He adds, however, that if the allegations are proven true, Venezuela will almost certainly be added to the U.S. State Department's list of state sponsors of terror, and that Colombia could seek sanctions against it through the UN Security Council. The U.S. intelligence community is also examining the documents, though one senior U.S. official tells the Wall Street Journal, "There is complete agreement in the intelligence community that these documents are what they purport to be."

The Colombia-Venezuela dispute is the latest permutation of a regional power struggle between the United States and its allies and a group of nations more sympathetic to Chavez's left-wing populism. Colombia is the closest U.S. partner in Latin America and has received billions of dollars in counternarcotics aid since 2001. Chavez has seized on these connections. "The U.S. empire has taken over Colombia," he said in March 2008 (AP).

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.