Files from Colombia's FARC rebels show ties to Chavez

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian leftist guerrillas may have tried to assassinate rivals of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez and trained his supporters in urban warfare, an analysis of thousands of seized rebel documents showed on Tuesday.

The study of the files seized during a 2008 raid on a rebel camp inside Ecuador also showed that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) contributed some $400,000 to Ecuador's President Rafael Correa's election campaign.

Venezuela's embassy in London questioned the authenticity of the documents published by the British-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), and called them a "dodgy dossier" that could be exploited to harm warming ties between the ideologically-opposed neighbors.

The accusations have been swirling since Colombian authorities captured computer hard drives belonging to a FARC leader, Raul Reyes, after he and other rebels were killed in the air raid three years ago.

"A lot of this material has been traveling through the public domain one way or another over the last years but the utility of this dossier is it provides authentic confirmation from the FARC perspective," IISS' Nigel Inkster told Reuters.

Colombia turned over the complete files to IISS, an independent think tank, for study after they were confirmed genuine by Interpol.

The 2008 attack triggered a diplomatic dispute between Alvaro Uribe's conservative government in Colombia and both Ecuador and Venezuela, which escalated when Uribe confronted Chavez with what he said was evidence Venezuela harbored and supported rebels.

Ties have improved dramatically since the election of Colombia's new President Juan Manuel Santos last August.

Venezuela has always disputed the alleged contents of the files seized in the raid, and on Tuesday its embassy in London said there was "serious doubt on the authenticity and validity of the information."

"This could become part of an aggressive propaganda tool against Venezuela to undermine progress in the region, precisely at a time when relations between Venezuela and Colombia have reached a level of stable cooperation and friendly dialogue," the embassy said in a statement.

COMPLEX TIES

According to the archives, the FARC responded to requests from Venezuela's intelligence services to provide urban warfare training to pro-Chavez groups when the socialist leader was feeling vulnerable following a brief 2002 coup.

"The archive offers tantalizing but ultimately unproven suggestions that FARC may have undertaken assassinations of Chavez's political opponents," Inkster said in a presentation.

The documents also show Ecuador's Correa receiving campaign cash from the guerrillas, although this did not necessarily translate into government favors after he was elected.

There was no immediate reaction from Ecuador.

Colombia's government said it would not comment on the new study. "(Relations with Venezuela) are very good and the position of the Santos government is to strengthen them even more," Vice President Angelino Garzon told Colombian radio.

The files reveal a complex relationship between Chavez and the FARC, with the charismatic Venezuelan leader sometimes making promises to the group and then not following through.

According to the documents, Chavez also met in person several times with leading FARC members.

The FARC is at its weakest in decades following the deaths of top commanders and desertions prompted by a government crackdown aided by billions of dollars in U.S. support.

But the rebels remain powerful in some areas of Colombia, helped by their involvement in the lucrative drug trade, kidnapping for ransom and alliances with other armed groups.

References to the group's links with local and international drug traffickers is peppered through the archive, Inkster said.

(Editing by Daniel Wallis and Laura MacInnis)