Interpol to report on Colombian FARC rebel computers

By Patrick Markey

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Interpol, the international police agency, will report on Thursday on computer records seized by Colombia from Marxist rebels in March that it says prove the guerrillas received extensive aid from Venezuela.

The dispute has highlighted a sharp divide in the Andes, where Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has become Washington's closest South American associate and leftists in Venezuela and Ecuador are ardent U.S. critics.

To bolster its charges, Colombia invited Interpol to verify that authorities have not tampered with the computers seized during a raid on a FARC rebel base in Ecuador. The multinational police agency is due to release its forensic report in Bogota.

The White House backs accusations the FARC computers show strong Venezuelan support for rebels.

"The stuff we are seeing is troubling, very troubling," U.S. assistant secretary of state Thomas Shannon said.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa have dismissed the accusations as part of a U.S.-backed dirty tricks campaign.

Diplomatic tensions in the Andes have spiked since the March raid when Colombian forces killed a top rebel commander.

Interpol says its mission was only to carry out forensics. The agency will vouch for the documents' authenticity, but not the veracity of their contents, a Colombian security source said.