Chavez reviews Colombia ties after Interpol report

By Patrick Markey

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday said he was reviewing ties with Colombia after an Interpol report authenticated rebel computer documents that Bogota says prove the leftist leader has supported guerrillas.

The international police agency announced earlier on Thursday that the documents showed no evidence of tampering but said it could not verify the computer contents. Chavez has dismissed Bogota's charges as U.S.-backed propaganda.

Accusations based on the files from three laptops, hard drives and computer data keys are fuelling tensions in the Andean region, where Colombia is Washington's closest ally and Venezuela and Ecuador are fierce U.S. critics.

"We are obliged to once again deeply revise political, diplomatic and economic relations with Colombia," Chavez told a news conference in Caracas after the Interpol announcement in Colombia.

"They keep on assaulting us and this shameful show today was a new act of aggression," he said. "Nothing matters to them, they have no shame."

The international police agency's conclusion reinforced Colombian and U.S. officials' charges that the files show Venezuela has backed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

But Interpol said it did not verify the files' contents, leaving open to debate whether they tie Chavez to Latin America's oldest insurgency.

"Interpol concludes there was no tampering with any data," Interpol chief Richard Noble said through an interpreter in a Bogota. "We are absolutely certain that the computer discs our experts examined came from a FARC terrorist camp."