SPANISH PRIME minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has demanded an explanation from Venezuela over allegations that the government of Hugo Chavez collaborated in a murder plot involving Basque separatist organisation Eta and Colombian rebel movement Farc.
In a document issued by investigating magistrate Eloy Velazquez, the judge said his office had evidence that “demonstrated the Venezuelan government’s co-operation in the illicit collaboration” between Eta and Farc, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrilla movement.
Judge Velazquez has issued arrest warrants for six alleged members of Eta and seven Farc members for plotting to attack senior Colombian officials, including President Alvaro Uribe, during a visit to Spain.
One of the Basques named was Arturo Cubillos, an etarra who moved to Venezuela in 1989 as the result of an agreement between the then Spanish prime minister Felipe Gonzalez and President Carlos Andres Perez of Venezuela to grant residence to Eta suspects.
Mr Cubillos is married to a member of the Chavez government and works in the Venezuelan ministry of agriculture.
It is not known whether he was in contact with José Ayesteran, one of the three Eta suspects arrested in northern France last weekend, who lived in exile in Venezuela for many years and was jailed there during the 1980s for terrorist offences. Ayesteran is wanted by Spanish police for his part in 10 Eta killings.
The judge said that two Farc members, Gustavo Navarro and Victor Vargas, are known to have travelled to Spain to identify potential targets for assassination among the Colombian community.
The evidence stems from discs and e-mails found in a computer reportedly belonging to the Farc leader Raul Reyes, recovered after his death in a Colombian army attack on the guerrillas’ camp in the Ecuadorian jungle.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez denied the allegations. Typically, he blamed an “international Yankee plot”, describing it as “a sad remnant of Spain’s colonial past”. It is not the first time Mr Chavez has had strong words for Spain. His repeated interruptions of Mr Zapatero at the Ibero-American summit in Chile two years ago caused King Juan Carlos to shout: “Why don’t you shut up?”
Words of a more conciliatory tone came from Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan foreign minister. In a telephone call with his Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos, he promised he would investigate the allegations and keep Mr Moratinos informed.
Mr Zapatero said that he was waiting to receive the explanations from Mr Chavez, and said that his government “will act in accordance with these explanations”.