BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Venezuela and Ecuador sought Monday to make Colombia pay a high diplomatic and economic price for killing a leftist rebel leader in the Ecuadoran jungle — expelling its diplomats, ordering troops to the border and largely halting trade at key points along the frontier.
But Colombia quickly struck back, revealing what it said were incriminating documents seized from the rebel camp that suggest its neighbors have been secretly supporting the deadly insurgency.
And in a tit-for-tat move, Venezuela later displayed the laptop of a slain drug trafficker, which it said contained information implicating Colombia’s national police chief in the cocaine trade.
Colombia’s national police chief said the documents show Venezuela recently paid $300 million to the rebels, among other financial and political ties that date back years, and that meetings have been held between rebels and Ecuadoran officials.
And this shocker: Colombia says some documents suggest the rebels have bought and sold uranium.
“When they mention negotiations for 50 kilos of uranium, this means that the FARC are taking big steps in the world of terrorism to become a global aggressor. We’re not talking of domestic guerrillas but transnational terrorism,” Gen. Oscar Naranjo said at an explosive news conference. Naranjo give no details on when, where or from whom the uranium was allegedly bought. He provided no proof of the payment and wouldn’t release copies of the documents, which he said are “tremendously revelatory” and are being examined with the help of U.S. experts.
Venezuela and Ecuador dismissed his allegations as lies. They expelled Colombia’s top diplomats and recalled their own.
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa piled on the pressure, saying Colombia’s killing of the rebel leader Raul Reyes on Saturday had scuttled talks between his government and the guerrillas to free 12 rebel-held hostages, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. defense contractors.
“I’m sorry to tell you that the conversation were pretty advanced to free 12 hostages, including Ingrid Betancourt, in Ecuador,” said Correa in a televised address. “All of this was frustrated by the war-mongering, authoritarian hands” of the Colombian government.
Correa planned to visit five Latin American countries starting today to defend his decision to break off diplomatic relations, accusing Colombia of lying on the nature of the raid into Ecuador.
Colombia said military commandos, tracking Reyes through an informant, were fired upon from Ecuadoran territory. But Correa said Colombia deliberately carried out the strike beyond its borders.
Both countries also began reinforcing their borders, mobilizing troops and tanks as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned that another Colombian attack could spark a wider South American war.
Venezuelan National Guard troops and customs authorities suspended new imports and exports at the busiest border crossings.
Trade may prevent war
Maintaining trade with Colombia, essential to Venezuela’s economy, is one of many factors weighing against outright war. But the bellicose rhetoric has worried Latin American leaders. The presidents of Chile, Mexico and Brazil offered to mediate, and an emergency session of the Organization of American States was scheduled for today in Washington.
U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the U.S. supports Colombia’s right to defend itself against the FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and called for dialogue.
Colombian officials have long complained that rebels take refuge in Ecuador and Venezuela. The rebels, who have been fighting for more than four decades for a more equitable distribution of wealth in Colombia, fund themselves largely through the cocaine trade while holding hundreds of kidnapped hostages for ransom and political ends.
The documents seized by U.S.- backed Colombian commandos suggest both Correa and Chavez have been lying to the world, Naranjo said.
Killed in the bombing were Reyes, the FARC’s top spokesman, and 20 other guerrillas. Chavez called it “cowardly murder, all of it coldly calculated.”
“This could be the start of a war in South America,” Chavez said.
But Naranjo said the laptops show Venezuela’s growing responsibility for the conflict. The $300 million payment was mentioned in a Feb. 14 message in Reyes’ laptop, along with some documents suggesting rebels discussed a possible arms transfer from Venezuela and others revealing close ties between the top FARC leader, and Venezuela’s government.
Naranjo said other documents show deepening ties between the rebels and Correa.
Still another document suggests the rebels sent Chavez money when he was jailed in 1992 for leading a coup attempt, Naranjo said.
Venezuela countered late Monday by displaying its own seized laptop in Caracas, saying it holds incriminating information about Naranjo.
Venezuelan Justice Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin said the laptop belonging to Colombian drug lord Wilber Varela, who was found slain in Venezuela in January, held “important information and notes from the drug traffickers which involve Gen. Oscar Naranjo in drug trafficking.”
