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