El Pais Report Implicates Belarusian Government in Weapons Deal with Colombian Rebels

Spain’s daily El Pais has claimed that Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez planned to supply weapons to Colombia’s left-wing guerillas with the help of Belarus.

Colombian rebels: http://d.yimg.comReporting with reference to a source in the Colombian government, the newspaper says that Belarus’ involvement in the deal was revealed in an e-mail found stored on the computer of Raul Reyes, a leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who was killed earlier this year.

The e-mail, sent by FARC top member Ivan Marquez on February 8, said that Mr. Chavez “considered with the Belarusian authorities the possibility of weapons supplies.” “Our Belarusian friend continues work on the package on ways to the black market to solve the problems,” the newspaper quotes the guerilla as saying in the message.

The e-mail reportedly said that a delegation “from the friend” was to arrive in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, on February 17 to discuss weapons supplies to the FARC.

“The Angel asked us to be here and reach agreement with the delegation personally,” the e-mail said.

El Pais says that “the Angel” is Mr. Chavez’s pseudonym and the man referred to as “the Belarusian friend” is Viktar Sheyman, state secretary of the Belarusian Security Council and a member of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s inner circle.

The newspaper claims that Belarus contracted to supply €720 million worth of weapons to Venezuela last year and the deal was negotiated by Mr. Sheyman.

Mr. Sheyman visited Venezuela between February 15 and 19.

The state secretariat of the Belarusian Security Council declined to comment on the report on May 12.