Interpol Says Computer Files Not Tampered With

BOGOTA, Colombia – Interpol said Thursday that computer files suggesting Venezuela was arming and financing Colombian guerrillas came from a rebel camp and were not tampered with, discrediting Venezuela’s assertions that Colombia faked them.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denounced the report as “ridiculous,” saying a “show of clowns” surrounded the announcement. But the findings are sure to increase pressure on Mr. Chavez to explain his relationship with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

More revelations are likely to emerge, since Interpol also turned over to Colombia 983 files it decrypted.

“We are absolutely certain that the computer exhibits that our experts examined came from a FARC terrorist camp,” said Interpol’s secretary general, Ronald Noble, adding: “No one can ever question whether or not the Colombian government tampered with the seized FARC computers.”

Mr. Chavez did just that, calling Mr. Noble “a tremendous actor” and an “immoral police officer who applauds killers.”

Mr. Chavez denies arming or funding the FARC, though he openly sympathizes with Latin America’s most powerful rebel army.

Colombian commandos recovered the three Toshiba Satellite laptop computers, two external hard drives and three USB memory sticks after destroying the rebel camp just across the border in Ecuador.

Interpol addressed Mr. Chavez’s charges that no computer could have survived the bombardment by showing photographs of metal cases that protected them during the raid.

Originally published by Associated Press.

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