The tense standoff between Colombia and Venezuela continues to escalate, as Colombia charges Hugo Chavez with facilitating genocide by funding the FARC terror group, and also says they have evidence that FARC was trying to make a radioactive “dirty” bomb.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Colombia said on Tuesday that FARC rebels had been planning to make a “dirty bomb” with radioactive material, threatening the entire Latin American region.

The charges by Vice-President Francisco Santos, at the United Nations-sponsored Conference on Disarmament, marked a dramatic turn in a regional crisis that has seen Venezuela and Ecuador cut diplomatic ties with Colombia.

Bogota has already accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of funding the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, after Colombian forces crossed into Ecuador and killed a senior rebel commander on Saturday, sparking troop movements and warnings of war.

“Just yesterday (Monday) our national police submitted an initial report regarding the content of two computers found with Raul Reyes, second in command of FARC, who was killed last Saturday,” Santos said.

They contained “information from one commander to another indicating that FARC was apparently negotiating for radioactive material, the primary basis for generating dirty weapons of mass destruction and terrorism,” he added.

Initial information verified with international support showed “terrorist groups, based on the economic power of drug trafficking, constitute a serious threat not to just our country but to the entire Andean and Latin American region,” he said.

And now, Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador have all sent troops to the border.

Also see: Finding FARC.