Venezuela’s Embassy in London has dismissed a report detailing the supposed links between Venezuela, Ecuador and the FARC, labelling it “unreliable” due to its heavy reliance on the controversial “Raul Reyes” files, reported several media sources.
The book, titled “The FARC Files: Venezuela, Ecuador and the Secret Archive of ‘Raul Reyes’,” was released Tuesday by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a London-based think-tank regarding political-military conflict and strategic issues.
The report discusses the rocky relationship between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the FARC, providing plenty of examples of their collaboration, as well as how Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa’s “personally requested” FARC funding for his 2006 presidential campaign.
The Venezuelan Embassy in London have poured scourn over the revelations, releasing a statement saying that “it seems like an unreliable Latin American report,” containing “basic inaccuracies.” The embassy then made a call for the media to report “responsibly” about the matter.
The prime issue of contention appears to be over the “Raul Reyes” files themselves, with the Venezuelan Embassy pointing towards Interpol’s assessment that Colombian authorities did not “conform to internationally recognized principles for the routine treatment of electronic evidence.”
There is also a discrepancy over when the documents were last viewed, with Interpol only being able to verify that they had not been opened after March 3, 2008, whereas the files were seized in Colombia’s FARC raid on the Ecuadorean side of the border on March 1.
The embassy further noted how the Colombian Supreme Court had considered the evidence from fallen leader “Raul Reyes”‘ computers to be legally inadmissable, drawing the “surprise” of the Venezuelans that it was used to make the report’s conclusions.
“Because of these errors, the embassy believes that there are doubts about the quality of the rest of the report,” the statement continued.
The embassy warned that the report “may become part of a propaganda tool against Venezuela,” questioning the timing of the report’s release during a period of “cooperation and friendly dialogue” between the two nations and calling on the international community not to take the report at face value.