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Laptop Conundrums
By Richard Lapper
The Financial Times
May 19, 2008

No one should doubt the seriousness of allegations of Venezuelan support for Colombia's Farc. But the computer files – captured by Colombian troops after their March 1 attack on a guerrilla camp in Ecuador and "verified" last week by Interpol – do not provide definitive proof that such a connection exists.

The main problem for those seeking to use the material to show that Venezuela is providing logistic, weapons and financial support to the Farc is that most of the incriminating evidence consists of e-mails between guerrilla leaders. As Adam Isaacson of the Center for International Policy puts it, the captured communications "only reflect the guerrillas' version of events".

There is no telling to what extent the Farc – for its own reasons – is exaggerating the extent of the Venezuelan connection. That said, the documents provide any would-be investigators with plenty of lines of enquiry.

And there is of course very solid proof of Venezuelan ideological sympathy for the Farc. Most recently, while helping retrieve released Farc hostages in January, Ramón Rodriguez Chacín, Venezuela's interior minister, told one of the Farc captors on camera, "We are following your struggle. Maintain this spirit, maintain your strength and count on us.…Take care, comrades."

In any event, whether further investigation, under the auspices of the Organisation of American States, for example, will take place is another matter. From a business and economic point of view it serves neither US nor Colombian interests for sanctions to be imposed on Venezuela. Colombia enjoys a healthy trade surplus with its neighbour, while the US continues to import about a tenth of its oil from Venezuela.

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