Surprise: Will Terrorists soon be selling us petrol for a Juicy Profit?
The treasure trove of files that are contained in the seized computer of FARC commander Raul Reyes continue to be revealed to the public. In one file is one of the most disturbing terrorist financing schemes that has been created to date, whereby the FARC are to be the recipients of Venezuelan petroleum, which they will then sell on the worldwide oil market. Will multinational oil companies now be forced to perform due diligence investigations on every oil broker they deal with, and every transaction, to ensure that they are not purchasing oil from a designated terrorist organisation? Cry havoc, and let loose OFAC sanctions upon any company in the petroleum industry that fails to comply.
Here is an unofficial translation of a captured letter sent to the FARC Secretariat (ruling council) by two of its senior commanders on 8 February, 2008:
* “He [ Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez] offered us a business opportunity in which we would receive an allotment of oil to sell outside the country, which would give us a juicy profit. Another offer is the sale of gasoline in Venezuela or Colombia. Using the ‘dossier’ [the $300m received by the FARC from Venezuela], we set up a profitable company in Venezuela, with the possibility of obtaining government contracts.”
* The letter goes on to say that “Angel [code-word for Chavez] designated Ernesto [code-word for Venezuelan Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin] to coordinate this.’” Rodriguez Chacin, derisively designated “the cripple” by the FARC in other correspondence made public, still has not satisfactorily explained why he held a number of direct meetings with the FARC, as reported in other letters.
This means that, less than two months ago, the FARC was offered Venezuelan petroleum for sale on the open market, to finance their terrorist operations. The appearance of terrorist financiers on the global petroleum market could result in the creation of seller identification programmes within vastly expanded compliance departments at oil companies, for the fi