<em>Nerviosismo</em> in Caracas and Quito

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There are signs of nervousness in Venezuela and Ecuador in advance of Interpol Director Ron Noble’s announcement, scheduled for Thursday in Bogota, Colombia, on whether his agency believes the electronic files recovered from the laptop computer of the late FARC commander Raul Reyes were tampered with or not. If Interpol anoints the files as legitimate, serious political discomfort will ensue for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa because of their countries’ alleged dealings with the FARC, Colombia’s largest rebel group, as indicated by laptop files. The FARC is viewed officially by the U.S. and other nations as a terrorist group, and so the files could lead the U.S. to brand both countries as state terrorism sponsors. According to the Colombian government’s strategic leaks of dozens of the electronic files so far, Chavez has helped the FARC with arms and cash, while requesting that the FARC train Venezuelan forces. According to the computers, Ecuador took a casual approach to the FARC’s presence in its territory. Nervousness might explain why Chavez reacted Monday to a fairly innocuous remark by German Chancellor Angela Merkel by comparing her to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Correa meanwhile launched a European tour, possibly for purposes of damage control in advance, portraying his country as a victim of Colombia’s military aggression. Also on Thursday, Colombian police are expected to unveil a full inventory of the estimated 10,000 files in the laptops and two Zip drives recovered by its commandos after the March 1 raid inside Ecuadorean territory that killed Reyes and 24 others.

By Chris Kraul, Bogotá Bureau