Colombia: Computer data reveal links between FARC, Ecuador

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(CNN) -- Three captured computers from a deceased rebel leader document "tremendously revealing" and "very grave" links between Ecuador and Colombian rebels, the Colombian director of national police said Sunday.

The news comes after Colombian forces attacked rebels just inside Ecuador, killing Luis Edgar Devia Silva, also known as Raul Reyes, second-in-command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

FARC is a Marxist force that has fought to overthrow Colombia's government for 40 years. In response, Ecuador and Venezuela rushed troops toward their borders with Colombia on Saturday and Sunday.

Director Oscar Naranjo said the computers contain documents that describe "links of the FARC particularly with the government of President (Rafael) Correa" of Ecuador.

The documents show that Ecuador's minister of security met recently with Reyes and that Ecuador had "an interest in formalizing relations with the FARC," Naranjo said, according to an account published on a Colombian government Web site.

Naranjo's comments capped a day of fast-paced developments in a crisis involving the rightist government of Colombia and two of its leftist neighbors -- Ecuador and Venezuela.
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Earlier in the week, FARC released four former Colombian lawmakers who were among the estimated 750 hostages the group has held in the jungles of Colombia.

On Saturday, Colombian air forces attacked a FARC camp from the Colombian side of the border, adding that Colombia did not violate Ecuadorean airspace.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa withdrew his government's ambassador in Bogota, Colombia, and ordered troops to the country's border following a Colombian raid against leftist rebels inside Ecuador. Video Watch what led to attack »

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez ordered 10 battalions of troops to the Colombian border and the closure of the country's embassy in Bogota.

"The Colombian oligarchy says it was combat," said Chavez, referring to the Colombian air strike. "It was not combat. It was a cowardly murder, coldly prepared in its entirety. The truth is coming out."

Chavez said the Colombian government had violated Ecuador's sovereignty and added that, had the operation been conducted on Venezuelan soil, he would have declared war against Colombia.

"Colombia's government recognizes -- in a happy and irresponsible attitude -- that it has violated the sovereignty of a neighbor country, and that's worrisome," he said.

"Colombia is a terrorist state, a subject of the biggest terrorist in the world, the United States government, and all of its imperialist apparatus," he said.

The White House said it was "monitoring the situation."

"This is an odd reaction by Venezuela to Colombia's efforts against the FARC, a terrorist organization that continues to hold Colombians, Americans and others hostage," spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

The United States and European Union, as well as Colombia, consider the FARC a terrorist organization.