Hugo, laid bare by a laptop; FARC's uranium seized

Gateway Pundit has the headline: COLOMBIA SEIZES FARC TERRORIST URANIUM STASH! The Colombian National Ministry of Defense last Thursday seized in Bogota 30 kilos of "impoverished" uranium that the FARC had bought late last year. (h/t Siggy)

The Miami Herald explains,

The Defense Ministry said the discovery adds weight to the evidence found in a laptop belonging to slain guerrilla leader Raúl Reyes, which showed the rebels were interested in buying and selling the uranium on the international underground market.
...
The Colombian government has used details of an alleged deal, to buy up to 50 kilos of uranium at $2.5 million a kilo, found in emails on Reyes' computer to prove the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was planning to enter the international terrorism trade from its sanctuary set up in the jungle about one mile from the Colombia-Ecuador border.

All the information leading to this came from a laptop seized earlier this month when Colombian forces killed FARC's second-in-command Raul Reyes.

From the LA Times blog La Plaza, The strange case of Hugo Chavez and a rebel laptop

The cover of the Peruvian magazine Caretas features a photo-montage of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez with a portable computer covering his private parts. The headline: "Laptop left him naked."

That would be the purported rebel laptop found during this month's Colombian military strike on a rebel encampment in neighboring Ecuador. Among the alleged revelations: That Chavez financed the guerrillas to the tune of $300 million -- an allegation denied by Chavez.

Caretas magazine states (my translation):

From Reyes's harddrive:

• Chavez has direct links to the FARC, which go back a long time. So much so that the guerilla had given him $50,000 while he was in prison after his failed coup.
• 'Ivan Marquez', another member of the FARC secretariat, acknoledges Chavez's $300million contribution to the guerilla
• The FARC's commands repeatedly support Chavez: "The charter project with President Chavez goes forward so he can continue his humanitarian work and accordingly bring along other governments in the continent; he therefro gains in his geopolitical project and we hence continue to gain recognition as a Fighting Force". The fighting force status pushed by Chavez has become the most serious hurdle in the process.
• Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, Venezuelan Minister of Interior and Justice, keeps permanent contact with the FARC and has arranged for meeting - according to correspondence dated October 8, 2007 - "without the knowledge of the Colombian government."
• In an email sent to the highest FARC leader 'Manuel Marulanda' a.k.a. Tirofijo, two Secretariat members, 'Ivan Marquez' and 'Rodrigo Granda' mention ongoing FARC businesses in Venezuela. They mention oil quotas to be negotiated overseas and FARC investments in the country.
• And, of course, the uranium that the Colombian government just found Thursday last week.

The La Plaza also links to a report by the Colombian radio station RCN which states that Chavez had ordered ten batallions mobilized to the Colombian border for the purpose of protecting Manuel Maruanda (Tirofijo), which he feared was going to meet the same fate as Raul Reyes.

The report says that Hugo's call to Reyes is what helped the Colombian military locate Reyes, since Chavez had promised to call Reyes within forty-eight hours of the release of hostages Gloria Polanco, Orlando Beltrán, Jorge Eduardo Gechem and Luis Eladio Perez.

Additionally, RCN states that FARC's chief Marulanda is ill and is now in Venezuela, in a farm in the Norte de Santander region.

As La Plaza translates from Caretas,

"This is the way with the guerrillas sponsored by Hugo Chavez: Punish with ferocity human beings denied liberty for interminable years and manipulate the international community interested in contributing to the end of this hell."

In other Hugo news, today he's in Brazil.

Also in today's news, Colombia continues to pressure Ecuador to help co-ordinate border security, after Colombian farmers are attacked by Ecuador-based FARCs.



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