Ingrid Betancourt, the FARC raid’s real victim

The raid into Ecuador by Colombian troops to execute Raul Reyes, second-in-command of the Marxist guerilla army FARC, has sparked a diplomatic crisis that is making waves in and beyond South America.

The bold gesture by the Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe, friend of Washington, has infuriated his Leftist neighbours Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Rafael Correa of Ecuador, who have both sent troops to their borders with Colombia.

It has also made a pawn out of the French-Colombian politician, Ingrid Betancourt, who has been held hostage in the jungle by FARC for six years. Far from helping to free the 46–year-old woman, Uribe's raid looks to have spoiled any diplomatic chances of negotiating her release in the near future.

On top of this, there are the extraordinary claims from Colombia in the past 48 hours that they have found evidence on Paul Reyes's laptop that implicates Chavez as a sponsor of terrorism.

Oscar Naranjo, Colombia's chief of police, said documents found on the hard drive of Raul Reyes's computer showed that Chavez has paid $300m to FARC, and that the guerrillas were trying to buy 50kg of uranium to make a dirty bomb.

Naranjo claimed that another document - a letter from FARC leader Manuel Marulanda - offered Chavez support in the event of any US-led attack on Venezuela. The letter also mentioned that Chavez had offered FARC a consignment of weapons.

There is no denying that Chavez has some influence with FARC. It was his negotiations that prompted the release in January of six hostages, a feat President Uribe has been unable to achieve in two terms in office. But Chavez's deputy, Vice President Ramon Carrizalez, derided the Colombian police chief's claims about money and arms. "They can invent anything in order to try to