Colombia says FARC documents show Correa ties

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

Source: Reuters

OGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia said on Sunday documents found in a camp in Ecuador where Colombian troops killed a top guerrilla boss showed ties between the FARC rebels and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, including contacts about political proposals and local military commanders.

FARC rebel commander Raul Reyes was killed inside Ecuador in an army operation that has fueled tensions between Washington ally Colombia and neighbors Venezuela and Ecuador, where leftist leaders are fiercely opposed to U.S. proposals.

..........................
But Ecuador's Interior Minister Fernando Bustamante dismissed the accusations as false and Venezuela called the announcement an attempted smear campaign against Correa, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

"We are not going to accept such a thing," Bustamante said. "It is very easy to say something based on evidence that has not been scrutinized publicly or internationally."

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSN0229738220080303

[bitchkitty]

1. I am inclined to think that Colombia lies... n/t

[Judi Lynn]

2. The timing is interesting, isn't it? There's a REAL document Colombia should study, from the U. S.

Department of Defense, by golly!

U.S. INTELLIGENCE LISTED COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT URIBE AMONG
"IMPORTANT COLOMBIAN NARCO-TRAFFICKERS" IN 1991

Then-Senator "Dedicated to Collaboration with the Medellín Cartel at High Government Levels"

Confidential DIA Report Had Uribe Alongside Pablo Escobar, Narco-Assassins

Uribe "Worked for the Medellín Cartel" and was a "Close Personal Friend of Pablo Escobar"



Washington, D.C., 1 August 2004 - Then-Senator and now President Álvaro Uribe Vélez of Colombia was a "close personal friend of Pablo Escobar" who was "dedicated to collaboration with the Medellín cartel at high government levels," according to a 1991 intelligence report from U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officials in Colombia. The document was posted today on the website of the National Security Archive, a non-governmental research group based at George Washington University.

Uribe's inclusion on the list raises new questions about allegations that surfaced during Colombia's 2002 presidential campaign. Candidate Uribe bristled and abruptly terminated an interview in March 2002 when asked by Newsweek reporter Joseph Contreras about his alleged ties to Escobar and his associations with others involved in the drug trade. Uribe accused Contreras of trying to smear his reputation, saying that, "as a politician, I have been honorable and accountable."

The newly-declassified report, dated 23 September 1991, is a numbered list of "the more important Colombian narco-traffickers contracted by the Colombian narcotic cartels for security, transportation, distribution, collection and enforcement of narcotics operations." The document was released by DIA in May 2004 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the Archive in August 2000.

The source of the report was removed by DIA censors, but the detailed, investigative nature of the report -- the list corresponds with a numbered set of photographs that were apparently provided with the original -- suggests it was probably obtained from Colombian or U.S. counternarcotics personnel. The document notes that some of the information in the report was verified "via interfaces with other agencies."

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB131/index.htm

Including, at no additional cost to the reader, a look at the painting, "The Death of Pablo Escobar" by Colombian painter, Fernando Botero, and a photograph of the actual event:

http://upload.wikimedia.org.nyud.net:8090/wikipedia/en/c/cf/Pabloescopaint.png

http://farm1.static.flickr.com.nyud.net:8090/41/97665845_acb326edbe.jpg

More of Fernando Botero's work, including images of Abu Ghraib:
http://images.google.com/images?q=Fernando+Botero&hl=en&safe=active&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-37,GGLD:en&start=20&sa=N&ndsp=20

[Judi Lynn]

3. AP: Colombia: Rebel Memos Raise Questions

Colombia: Rebel Memos Raise Questions
By FRANK BAJAK – 4 hours ago

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Documents from a computer seized where Colombian commandos killed a senior rebel leader indicate Ecuador's president is deepening relations with Colombia's main guerrilla group, Colombia's police commander said Sunday.

The two documents, copies of which were obtained independently by The Associated Press, were apparently written by the slain rebel commander, Raul Reyes, in the past two months. They are addressed to the high command of his insurgency, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

An Ecuadorean government spokesman called the Colombian claims a lie.

More:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iCugtGPcxruL1KQ2vbcemQoVyCZwD8V5PF580