Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, who recently resigned from his post as Venezuelan Interior Minister, was an unknown element for Colombians until guerrilla hostages Clara Rojas and Consuelo González were freed, and his familiarity with the FARC was revealed in a statement that outraged the country: “We are with you in your struggle. Keep that spirit, keep that force and count on us.”This close relationship returned as news when, in an unexpected announcement during the diplomatic crisis between Caracas and Washington, the U.S. Department of the Treasury included him, together with two other heads of Venezuelan intelligence, in the list of Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker (SDNT), otherwise known as the “Clinton List.”The other two who were implicated were Henry de Jesús Rangel Silva, head of Venezuela’s Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP); and Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios, head of Venezuela’s Military Intelligence Directorate (DGIM), whose relationship with the FARC and other drug trafficking groups was revealed by SEMANA in an extensive report called “Chávez’s Montesinos.”“Today’s designation exposes two senior Venezuelan government officials and one former official who armed, abetted and funded the FARC, even as it terrorized and kidnapped innocents,” said Adam J. Szubin, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Treasury.Rodríguez Chacín is a long time member of the inner circle of the “Bolivarian” regime of Venezuela, and, of the three, is by far the one with the highest profile. Early in September he had surprisingly resigned his post as Minister of the Interior, citing personal reasons, and was rumored to become the ambassador to Colombia. A retired Navy captain, he is an expert in anti-guerrilla operations, intelligence and counter-intelligence, and has been a part of the Chávez inner circle since he has been in power. He was Minister of the Interior during the short-lived coup d’état on April 11, 2002. Then, when Chávez returned to power in a matter of hours, the President reassigned him to another position as a conciliatory gesture with the opposition.His contacts with the FARC date back to 1999, including visits to the Caguán (a demilitarized zone in southern Colombia the size of Switzerland that was handed over to the FARC during the peace process of former Colombian President Andrés Pastrana), and he was the personal liaison between Chávez and the Colombian guerrillas. After a time in the shadows, the Venezuelan President brought him back last year so that he would help with the humanitarian exchange of hostages in Colombia. But his actions clearly crossed a line. According to OFAC, in addition to having met on several occasions with FARC members, he helped them receive a Venezuelan government loan of 250 million USD, even though it could not be confirmed whether or not it actually materialized. This information was extracted from the computer of Raúl Reyes, a FARC leader who was killed in a Colombian military operation in Ecuador earlier this year.Carvajal, considered the brain behind Venezuelan intelligence services, is accused by OFAC of blocking the interception of Colombian drug shipments by the FARC, in addition to providing weapons and identity documents to guerrillas so that they could move freely about in Venezuelan territory. As was revealed in the SEMANA investigation, he also had provided protection to drug traffickers such as the kingpin Wilber Varela, alias “Jabon,” who would later be murdered in Venezuelan territory. And, according to the testimony of an active official of the Venezuelan Guard obtained by this magazine, General Carvajal had a meeting in May 2006 with German Briceño Suárez, alias “Grannobles,” a FARC leader and brother of “Mono Jojoy”, another very important leader of that guerilla group, in a farm in Barinas, Venezuela where they discussed political, military and economic coordination strategies.Carvajal is also being looked at by intelligence agencies for his alleged participation in the torture and murder of Capitan Camilo González and the corporal Gregorio Martínez, two members of the Colombian Army who, according to information from Bogotá, pursued guerrillas who were sheltered in Venezuela. After they infiltrated Venezuela, they were discovered, and according to witnesses, Carvajal ordered their deaths.Lastly, the third Venezuelan official to be implicated, Rangel Silva, is accused of helping the FARC in drug trafficking and lobby for closer links between the guerrilla and the Venezuelan government. The director of the DISIP is mentioned in repeated communications found in the computers of Raúl Reyes and held meetings with guerrilla leaders Iván Márquez, Rodrigo Granda and “Timochenko” to guarantee the security of the guerrilla fighters in Venezuelan territory.According to U.S. officials speaking under the condition of anonymity, a major part of the case against the three Venezuelans is backed up by emails from Reyes’ computers. That, in some way, legitimizes the information that the government has filtered to the media and validates Colombian complaints. But it also puts Colombia at the forefront of the complicated continental intrigue which Chávez has created out of his confrontation with Washington. Until now, the Colombian Foreign Ministry has maintained a prudent silence. The government knows that any declaration it makes, as they say in old police movies, could and will be used against them. But at the same time it recognizes that a prolonged and strained environment between its two principal commercial partners is a time bomb for Colombian interests. It is a no win situation.Without a doubt, it will be the first great challenge for Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermúdez. Even more so this week as he accompanies President Uribe to the United Nations in New York and later to Washington. As they say, they will be walking into the lion’s den…