When the Colombian military raided a
camp of the narco-terrorist group FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de
Colombia) across the border in Ecuador in 2008, the resulting intelligence
haul from computers belonging to FARC capo Raúl Reyes revealed the shocking extent
to which the group conspired and colluded with the radical populist governments
of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Rafael Correa in Ecuador.
Unfortunately, however, Chavez and
Correa were able to quickly divert international media attention away from the
incriminating data by launching a hysterical campaign accusing the Colombian
government of a wanton violation of Ecuador's "sovereignty." The result
was neither Chavez nor Correa ever had to seriously answer for consorting with
a terrorist organization.
Now, another opportunity is presenting
itself for a settling of accounts. Last
week, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies
released a two-year study of the massive trove of FARC
data, entitled The FARC Files: Venezuela, Ecuador and the Secret Archive of
Raúl Reyes. Among its notable conclusions is the fact that as the
FARC's military capabilities have been systematically degraded by the Colombian
military over the past decade, the more important it has become to the FARC to
drum up political support and legitimization outside Colombia and establish and
maintain safe havens in neighboring states.
According to the IISS, Chavez allowed
the FARC "to use Venezuelan territory for refuge,
cross-border operations and political activity, and effectively assigned the
group a role in Venezuelan civil society." Chavez even subsidized a FARC
office in Caracas.
The data also revealed that
the FARC and other drug traffickers contributed up to $400,000 to Correa's 2006
presidential campaign.
The revelations have once
again been met with a raft of unconvincing denials from Caracas and Quito and
spurious accusations that the data was "fabricated." (On the charge that
his campaign took money from the FARC, President Correa pronounced he "wouldn't
take 20 cents" from the group, even as the IISS points out that Ecuadorean bank
records show his campaign received a $100,000 transfer right about the same
time FARC e-mail messages said such a contribution was being made.)
The IISS does point out that the
relationships were marked by mutual mistrust and suspicion, but that says more
about there not being any honor among thieves than anything else. The
bottom line is that Venezuela's and Ecuador's succor, indulgence, or otherwise
benign neglect of a drug-running terrorist organization has undermined a
sovereign, democratic neighbor's efforts to establish law and order over the
breadth of its territory. They also have unnecessarily complicated a
multi-billion dollar joint U.S.-Colombian effort to disrupt the cultivation and
trafficking of illicit narcotics that spawns criminality and violence wherever
it puts down roots.
That is a record that has to be answered
for. Chavez and Correa slipped the noose last time around. They
shouldn't be allowed to do so again.
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