Interpol, the international police agency, said computer files that may link Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez to Colombia's biggest guerrilla group are authentic and weren't tampered with by the Colombian government.

The files found on three laptop computers, three USB flash drives and two external hard disks seized during a Colombian cross-border raid into Ecuador in March belonged to Raul Reyes, second in command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said today in Bogota. Interpol didn't analyze the files' content, he said.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe may use the Interpol report to build international pressure on Venezuela and Ecuador to end their alleged support for guerrillas' 44-year fight against the government. Colombia says the documents validated by the 186-nation organization show Chavez and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa provided financing, supplies and border-area sanctuary to the FARC, as the drug-funded group is known.

"On consideration of all the evidence reviewed by our experts, Interpol concludes that there was no tampering with any data on the computer exhibits following their seizure on 1 March 2008 by Colombian authorities,'' Noble told reporters.

U.S. Sanctions

Chavez and Correa have denied aiding the FARC and said the documents are forgeries. Venezuela, in a statement issued today by its embassy in Washington, said that although the computers had "apparently not been altered,'' their content has been "manipulated'' and turned into "the most reckless and irresponsible accusations'' against Venezuela.

Chavez today called the Interpol report a "clown show'' during a meeting with foreign journalists in Caracas and acted out how easy it would be to plant evidence on a dead body. He said Interpol favored Colombia in the report.

Noble said Interpol asked Chavez and Correa to work with the agency in its investigation but they didn't respond.

The findings may fuel a push by U.S. lawmakers for diplomatic and economic sanctions on Venezuela, the fourth- biggest supplier of foreign crude oil to the U.S. The FARC is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., European Union and Canada. Under U.S. law, support for a terrorist group by anyone is illegal.

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, demanded in a statement today that Venezuela and Ecuador be punished for seeking to undermine Colombia's government, calling for condemnation by the Organization of American States and other international bodies.

U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Times in March that President George W. Bush should put Venezuela on the list of state sponsors of terror.

Criminal Case

Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said in an interview before the report's release that the Reyes documents "clearly demonstrate how much help the FARC have received from our neighbors.''

Venezuela-Colombia relations worsened after the raid into Ecuador, a Venezuelan ally, as the alleged contents of computers were leaked to U.S. and Latin American newspapers. The reports said the documents show Venezuelan officials sought to help the FARC buy weapons such as ground-to-air missiles, offered to move arms through a port and discussed setting up training camps in Venezuela.

Chavez said during his weekly television show on May 11 Colombia may be seeking to provoke a war with the files and justify U.S. military intervention.

Uribe said on March 4 that Colombia would take its allegations of subversion by terror to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

'Very Scared'

"Of course it's still an option,'' Santos said. "We're still discussing what to do. Some people say as soon as it's validated, put it on the Web, everything, and let the international community see. Some say, no, there's information there that we don't want them to know that we know.''

Chavez, who called Uribe a Mafioso, a liar and a lackey of the U.S. after the attack in Ecuador, toned down his rhetoric after Uribe at a Rio Group meeting in the Dominican Republic March 7 read from documents allegedly found in Reyes computer that outlined Venezuela's ties to the guerrillas.

Chavez "is very scared,'' Santos said.

Should the U.S. designate Venezuela a state sponsor of terror, sanctions could include denying tax credits for companies on income earned in the country and restrictions on U.S. financial transactions with the government, according to the U.S. State Department's Web site. Venezuela is already barred from purchasing U.S. arms.

'Cryptic'

Some analysts say the files disclosed so far don't lead directly to Chavez or Correa.

"The files from all accounts are vague and cryptic and remain unsubstantiated,'' said Patrick Esteruelas, Latin America risk analyst with the Eurasia Group in New York. "They can't build a case in court against him without concrete proof.''

Chavez, who brokered the release of six hostages from the FARC this year, says his only ties to the guerrillas have been to help settle Colombia's internal conflict.

"There has been no evidence presented so far,'' Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela's ambassador to the U.S., said in a telephone interview from Washington. "Interpol presents whatever they want to present. There is already a campaign in the media that's been going on for a long time, accusing Venezuela of supporting terrorism.''

"This is not the first time in history that this kind of thing has been used to provoke a war,'' he said.