Venezuela's Corruption Exposed

Message to INFODIO readers: investigative journalism, which is what this site does, takes lots of time. Visiting media looking for a quick run down on Venezuela's gargantuan corruption, have the decency to at least cite the source when plagiarising this site's content without attribution (exhibit Reuters here and here, exhibit Bloomberg here, exhibit OCCRP here). To all readers, do the right thing, the honest thing: support independent investigative journalism, help us expose rampant corruption. Note added 28/06/2021: impostors are using INFODIO's former editor's full name, and a fake email address (alek.boyd.arregui at gmail.com) to send copyright infringement claims / take down requests to web hosting companies (exhibit Hostgator). The attempt is yet another effort paid by corrupt thugs to erase information about their criminal activities. Infodio.com has no issues with other websites / journalists using / posting information published here, so long as the source is properly cited.

FARC files: Juan Manuel Santos leverage on Hugo Chavez still secret

13 years ago By Alek Boyd

Right on cue, after my article about Juan Manuel Santos being an accomplice of the FARC, the international Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) will launch the dossier "The FARC Files: Venezuela, Ecuador and the Secret Archive of 'Raúl Reyes'" in a few days time, here in London. We already knew that Reyes' huge cache data was sent by former President Alvaro Uribe to London, what we still don't know is how much of it was sent, or whether what was sent is of any strategic importance. But the IISS has provided a clue, in its announcement about the launch the following can be read:

The dossier explores the nature of FARC's activities in relation to Venezuela and Ecuador and their implications for regional and international security. All of the relevant archival material, totalling approximately 1.6 million words, will also be published on an accompanying CD.

Those following Hugo Chavez, his support for and relations with the FARC are aware of the INTERPOL report, commissioned by Juan Manuel Santos' predecessor, to the effect of establishing whether the data found in Raul Reyes' computers was veritable and trustworthy. It's worth a read, especially to find out that "... The eight seized FARC laptop computers, USB thumb drives and external hard disks contain a total of 609.6 gigabytes of data, including documents, images and videos..." (page 7) which "... if converted to full-page text documents would equal 39.5 million pages." (page 20).

So the questions that I would like to ask to the researchers from IISS are: who decided what constitutes "relevant archival material", Colombia or the IISS? Did Colombia sent the IISS the entire archive, totalling 609.6 gigabytes of data, or did it send just what it thought appropriate to carry on blackmailing Hugo Chavez?

Copyright © 2018, INFODIO. All rights reserved.