Interpol says Colombia FARC laptop files authentic

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian guerrilla computer documents that Bogota says are proof Venezuela and Ecuador supported the Marxist rebels are authentic and show no evidence of tampering, Interpol said on Thursday.

The international police agency's conclusion reinforces Colombian and U.S. officials' charges that the files show Venezuela 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 Venezuelan President Hugo 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."

Chavez and Ecuadorean leader Rafael Correa, whose government has also been implicated in the scandal, say the charges are false and part of a U.S.-backed campaign to discredit their left-leaning governments.

Colombia, which along with the United States labels the FARC terrorists, seized the laptops in a March raid on a rebel camp inside Ecuador that killed a guerrilla leader.

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

40 MILLION PAGES

Ties have been strained since the March raid in which Colombian forces killed rebel commander Raul Reyes, sparking a diplomatic crisis and fears of a regional war.

Colombia asked Interpol to carry out tests to guarantee it had not manipulated the rebel material.

Dozens of Interpol agents scoured what Noble said were the equivalent of 40 million Microsoft Word pages, including videos, photographs, data spreadsheets and nearly 1,000 encrypted files.

Colombian police claim the archives showed Chavez offered financial aid to the rebels and Correa allowed them to hide out in Ecuador. U.S. officials say documents reveal the rebels' deep ties to Venezuela's government.

"There are serious allegations about Venezuela supplying arms and support to a terrorist organization," U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Handing Interpol the evidence was meant to add credibility to the charges, said Phillip McLean, an ex-U.S. diplomat with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"But the computers give only one side of a conversation, i.e.: the FARC's. Intel analysts will find it fascinating, but it would be hard to call what comes out 'proof,'" he said.

U.S. officials often portray Chavez as a threat to regional stability as he pushes his socialist revolution. The former soldier says the United States is plotting with Colombia to oust him.

Chavez and Correa say contacts with rebels were only part of mediation efforts to free hostages held by the guerrillas.

The documents have prompted calls in the U.S. Congress for sanctions against Venezuela, a major U.S. oil supplier.

"Today's developments once again show the need for the State Department to fully recognize the very real threat that Chavez and his allies pose," Republican Rep. Connie Mack of Florida said.

But with oil prices hovering around record highs in a presidential election year, Washington is not expected to take a tougher line or apply sanctions without more evidence against Chavez, analysts said.

"The U.S. is unlikely to label Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism and impose sanctions unless they can substantiate the FARC's first-hand, cryptic accounts with hard proof," said Patrick Esteruelas at the Eurasia Group in New York.

(Reporting by Patrick Markey in Bogota; Editing by Saul Hudson and Xavier Briand)