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Venezuelans Aided FARC, U.S. Says

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The Washington Post

Published: September 13, 2008

BOGOTA, Colombia - The United States accused three top aides to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of helping Colombian guerrillas traffic cocaine and topple the Colombian government, the first time the Bush administration has publicly outlined what it calls tight links between a terrorist group and the highest echelon of Venezuela's leftist government.

The condemnation came in the form of a designation by the Treasury Department that accused former Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin and two leading intelligence officials of helping the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia procure weapons and weaken Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed government.

The United States and Europe have blacklisted the FARC, as the rebel group is known in Spanish, as a terrorist organization, and it is widely reviled in Colombia for carrying out mass kidnappings and assassinations.

"Today's designation exposes two senior Venezuelan government officials and one former official who armed, abetted and funded the FARC, even as it terrorized and kidnapped innocents," said Adam Szubin, director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Under the designation, any property the three Venezuelans own in the United States would be frozen and any American doing business with them could face criminal penalties.

More significantly, the designation underscores how the Bush administration is prepared to escalate an ongoing conflict with Chavez, a populist who, critics say, has spent billions of dollars to help allies and radical leftist groups across Latin America.

The American announcement came a day after Chavez ordered U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy to leave the country in 72 hours in an act of solidarity with his close ally in Bolivia, President Evo Morales, who on Wednesday expelled the American ambassador in La Paz.

Both South American leaders, among a five-nation bloc including Cuba, Nicaragua and Ecuador that are opposed to many American policies, say that the Bush administration is trying to foment unrest, topple them from power and take over their countries' natural resources.

The United States has in the past simply denied the accusations. This time, Washington upped the ante in a way that will surely lead Chavez to retaliate.

On Thursday, Chavez had warned that his country could cut oil supplies to the United States - although American officials doubt that Venezuela, dependent on oil sales, would ever follow through.

U.S. officials said that Rodriguez Chacin, who resigned Monday from the Interior Ministry for what he said were personal reasons, was the Venezuelan government's main weapons point man for the FARC, facilitating the sale of arms to the rebels.

The head of Venezuela's Military Intelligence Directorate, Hugo Carvajal, protected drug shipments from seizure by honest Venezuelan authorities and provided weaponry, the Treasury Department said.

American officials also said that Carvajal provided FARC members with identification documents that allowed them to travel inside Venezuela.

Henry de Jesus Silva, director of Venezuela's Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services is accused of assisting the FARC in drug trafficking and advocating closer ties between the Venezuelan state and the rebel group.

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