A FARC press release published Monday claims that a Spanish judge’s accusations that the Venezuelan government worked with the guerrilla group are part of a “dirty war” waged by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s administration.
“The unprecedented political and judicial attack that the Spanish judge Eloy Velasco has launched against the Venezuelan government, is the continuation, through a third party, of the dirty war that the ultra-right Bogota government, following orders from the White House, has declared for ideological geographically strategic reasons, against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” the press release published on Anncol stated.
The FARC claimed that Uribe’s “deep grudge” against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is the cause of the “farce” of linking Venezuela to the FARC and Basque separatist group ETA.
The FARC’s statement was in response to the 26 page indictment published by Spanish judge Eloy Velasco in March. Velasco charged seven members of the FARC, and six members of the Basque separatist group ETA, with terrorism, conspiracy to commit murder, and numerous other offenses.
Velasco also accused the Venezuelan government of illicit cooperation with the internationally designated terrorist groups.
His indictment includes evidence that a suspected member of the ETA, Arturo Cubillas Fontan, has served numerous high-level roles within the Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chavez, and acted as a link between the ETA, the FARC, and Venezuela.
Venezuela denied the allegations, and labelled the indictment “part of a campaign to discredit Venezuela.”
Uribe defended Venezuela, saying that an investigation into a government official’s ties to terrorism doesn’t mean that the government itself is terrorist-affiliated.
In mid-March Velasco issued international arrest warrants for the accused FARC and ETA members.