Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Pictured: FARC. Armed by Venezuela?

JACKSONVILLE, Florida — President George W. Bush said Tuesday the alleged links between Venezuela and Colombia’s leftist FARC rebels were “closer” than previously thought and backed Bogota’s investigation into the matter.

Without referring to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — a US nemesis since he was elected 10 years ago — Bush for the first time mentioned Colombia’s probe of the computer files it found in a FARC rebel camp it raided inside Ecuador on March 1.

“Recently, when Colombian forces killed one of the FARC’s most senior leaders, they discovered computer files that suggest even closer ties between Venezuela’s regime and FARC terrorists than we previously knew,” he said in a speech in Jacksonville, Florida.

“Colombian officials are investigating the ties but this much should be clear: the United States strongly supports, strongly stands with Colombia in its fight against the terrorists and drug lords,” Bush said, implicitly backing Bogota’s probe.

After a week-long row over the cross-border raid between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela — which took Ecuador’s side and sent troops to its border with Colombia — Bogota said the found documents showed Venezuela had given 300 million dollars to FARC.

Bogota said it would take Chavez to the International Criminal Court for allegedly financing the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group.

Chavez’s leftist regime sympathises with FARC and its cause, and has asked it be given “belligerent status”, but the United States and Europe considers it a terrorist group.

Reiterating his anti-Chavez criticism in a speech last week, Bush said Venezuela “has railed against America, has forged an alliance with communist Cuba, has met with FARC leaders in Venezuela, has deployed troops to the Colombian border.

“In the process, regime leaders have squandered their oil wealth and left their people to face food shortages.”

Chavez shot back on Sunday calling Bush a “terrorist” responsible for “genocide,” and said Venezuelans “today are better fed than ever.”

Bush on Tuesday also recalled that FARC had been holding three Americans hostage since 2003, when their plane was captured, noting they were “the longest-held American hostages anywhere in the world.”

(AFP)

Nods to LftBhndAgn.