ETA and FARC link proven, says Colombia's Santos

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who is on a two-day visit to Madrid, said Tuesday that he is convinced that enough evidence exists to establish a working terrorist link between ETA and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Santos, who made the claim during an early-morning breakfast program on TVE state television, said the evidence comes from information gathered in the confiscated laptop computers belonging to the late Mono Jojoy, the FARC's military commander who died last died in an ambush by Colombian soldiers.

"It has been proven in a lot of the emails that we have discovered in the computers belonging to these FARC terrorists. There is even a video where the FARC is paying homage to ETA," the Colombian president said.

It was the first time a government leader has confirmed the connection between the Colombian rebels and the Basque terrorist group.

DEA arrests

In December 2009, the US Drug Enforcement Administration publicly announced that it had captured three Al Qaeda operatives in Ghana and brought them to the United States to face drug trafficking charges related to helping the FARC bring in cocaine through North Africa into Spain and the rest of Europe.

Earlier this year, captured ETA terrorists acknowledged that they had traveled to Venezuela where they met with a mid-level official in Hugo Chávez's government who helped them train with the FARC in 2007. That official, José Arturo Cubillas Fontán, a former ETA member who settled in Venezuela in 1989, is wanted by the Spanish High Court. The Venezuelan Supreme Court is studying an extradition request.

"I recall that one of the emails even mentions names," Santos said. "This link has already been proven."

The information gathered from laptop seizures has not been publicly released but Colombian authorities are said to be working closely with Spanish investigators to uncover the true extent of the Basque-FARC connection.

Mono Jojoy (real name Víctor Julio Suárez Rojas) was the group's second-in-command and a hardliner who was responsible for holding hostages. He was killed during a massive air strike in an area called La Macarena in Colombia's Meta department, about 60 kilometers south of Bogota.