Accusations based on the files are reheating tensions after a March diplomatic crisis in the Andean region, where Colombia has become Washington’s staunchest ally and Venezuela and Ecuador are among the fiercest critics of U.S. policies. Colombia, which along with the United States labels the FARC terrorists, seized the laptops in a March raid on a rebel camp inside Ecuador that killed FARC commander Raúl Reyes and briefly raised fears of border clashes among the three neighbors. International police agency Interpol said earlier on Thursday the FARC documents were real and showed no tampering, but also said it could not verify the contents. Chávez dismisses Bogotá’s charges as U.S.-backed propaganda and called the Interpol’s press conference a “clown show”. “They keep on assaulting us and this shameful show today was a new act of aggression,” Chávez told a news conference in Caracas after the Interpol announcement in Colombia. The self-styled socialist said Venezuela did not need Colombian imports though the Andean neighbor is one its largest trading partners and accounts for much of its food imports.The international police agency’s conclusion reinforced Colombian and U.S. charges the files show Venezuela has backed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). But Interpol’s acknowledgment that it did not verify the files’ contents leaves open to debate whether they tie Chavez to Latin America’s oldest insurgency. Responding from Lima, where Latin American leaders meet this week for a Latin America EU summit, Uribe said the Interpol report proved Colombia had acted correctly. “Its conclusion is clear about how honestly the Colombian authorities have acted” he said.
