The Computers and the Farc

I'm still not convinced about the hard drives captured by the Colombian military in the raid on the FARC in Ecuador and the claims made that Hugo Chávez was providing support to the FARC and that the FARC was supplying financial aid to the campaign of Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa.

It's not that I would put such actions past them, but the Uribe administration continues to be a relentlessly bad actor in this story and in pushing their contemptible criticism of those who oppose the AUC. If they were smart they would have handed off the laptops in their entirety to a responsible third party for examination, establishing credible chain of custody in the process. Their zeal to get the issue in the limelight obviously trumped their good sense.

As for Hugo Chávez, if the claims made by Uribe turn out to be true, he should bear that in mind the next time he complains about those he claims are plotting coups against him. His praise for Raúl Reyes after he was killed and his request that the EU remove the FARC from their list of terrorist organizations certainly makes his behavior suspect, to the say the least.

There are far too many bad players in this game and far too many people suffering for me to feel much optimism. The facts need to be brought forth and an independent source should have been involved from the beginning.

Comments

[Kolya]

I'm no expert, but my understanding is that the Interpol guys will be able to determine if any of the juicy data was added after the raid.

[Woody]

Proof that Hugo Chavez runs a Mickey Mouse government. http://www.noticias24.com/actualidad/?p=13220

[Randy Paul]

Kolya,

You're probably right, but establishing the chain of custody would still be important.