Book details Venezuela's ties to FARC

BOGOTA, May 10 (UPI) -- Computer files from 2008 show Colombian rebels trained Venezuelan government goons to kill opponents of Hugo Chavez's regime, computer data indicated.

The New York Times said Tuesday the apparent proof came in the form of data found in a computer belonging to a leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym FARC, who was killed in a 2008 raid.

The documents laid out a fairly tight relationship between Venezuela and FARC, a leftist force battling the pro-U.S. government in Bogota. The details are chronicled in "The FARC Files," a new book released this week in London by the think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The Times said the book details a relationship that was both cooperative and frequently rocky. In one instance, the Venezuelan army gave FARC permission to send a supply mule train across the border into Colombia, but then ambushed the convoy and turned its prisoners over to Colombian authorities.

At the same time, FARC agreed to provide training to Venezuelan pro-government paramilitaries and carry out political bombings in 2003.

"We tried to produce a sober analysis of the FARC since the late 1990s, when Venezuela became a central element of their survival strategy," said Nigel Inkster, one of the book's editors.