Colombia seeks charges against Chávez

Miami Herald

President Alvaro Uribe said Tuesday that his government would ask the International Criminal Court to try Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez for financing and supporting Colombia's main rebel group.

The Uribe government claims documents found in the laptop of a slain commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia indicate Chávez's government recently gave $300 million to the group known as the FARC.

The United States and the European Union classify the FARC as an international terrorist organization.

''Colombia is proposing that the International Criminal Court charge Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, for the support and financing of genocide,'' Uribe told journalists after meeting with an ex-congresswoman who was recently freed by the FARC after more than six years as a hostage.

Uribe did not explain what arguments against Chávez would be presented to the Netherlands-based court.

The Colombian government says documents found in the laptop of Raul Reyes, a senior FARC leader killed Saturday in a raid on a guerrilla camp just inside Ecuador, show Chávez's ties with the rebels date back more than a decade.

The documents indicate, Colombia alleges, that the FARC even sent Chávez money when he was in jail from 1992-94 for leading a failed coup.

Venezuela says Colombia is lying about the documents.

Source: Miami Herald

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