Colombia says suspects planned to give FARC 40,000 bullets
The four, including a Venezuelan national guard sergeant, will suffer 'the full weight of Colombian law,' an official says.
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — A Venezuelan national guard sergeant will face "the full weight of national law" after being arrested in a remote border area, allegedly on his way to deliver 40,000 bullets to Colombia's largest rebel group, this country's foreign minister said Saturday.
The sergeant, Manuel Agudo Escalona, was arrested Friday with another Venezuelan and two Colombians in the eastern jungle state of Vichada with AK-47 rifle munitions destined for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the government said.
Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo said at a news conference Saturday that he had made contact with counterparts in Venezuela to "verify the identity of the group and who could be implicated. . . . There will be an investigation coordinated by both ministries."
As of Saturday evening, Venezuela had made no official comment on the arrests.
The arms case is a potential source of new tension between the two countries, led by ideologically opposed presidents. Colombia, whose president is a conservative strongly backed by the United States, has charged that leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has given "systematic and intentional help" to the FARC as it carried out attacks on Colombia from Venezuelan territory, calling that support a "crime against humanity."
In March, electronic files found in the laptops of a late FARC commander included messages that the Colombian government says indicated that Venezuela promised to supply the rebels with arms and a haven as well as political and logistics support.
Colombia recovered the FARC laptops after its aircraft and soldiers entered Ecuadorean territory March 1 to kill the rebels' No. 2 rebel commander, known as Raul Reyes. The raid sparked a regional crisis, and Chavez briefly sent tank battalions to the Colombian border.
The content of the messages has not been corroborated, and Chavez later told Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at a meeting in Brazil that he has not given "the tiniest bullet" to the rebels.
Citing unidentified sources, Colombian news reports said the munitions recovered Friday were stolen from a military barracks in the Venezuelan city of Valencia, but a spokesman for the Colombian special prosecutor, Mario Iguaron, said Saturday that he could not verify the reports.
The four suspects were brought to Bogota on Saturday for questioning. Araujo said the four will suffer "the full weight of Colombian law."
