(WASHINGTON) – U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Connie Mack (R-FL) have introduced a resolution urging the U.S. Government to designate Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism.

The Congressional request comes in the wake of increasing reports that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has repeatedly provided financial and logistical support to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).  Documents recently seized in a Colombian raid of a FARC encampment suggest evidence of $300 million in payments to the FARC from the Venezuelan government, and high-level contacts between FARC and Venezuelan government officials.

“For more than 40 years, the FARC has waged a brutal and debilitating war against the people of Colombia. Evidence that the Venezuelan government might have given aid and comfort to violent extremists is reprehensible and must not be ignored,” said Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

More than 3,200 people have died at the hands of the FARC since 2003, and more than 6,200 Colombian and foreign citizens, including 3 Americans still being held hostage, have been kidnapped in the last decade.

“The decision of Venezuelan leaders to support the criminal acts of these violent extremists has poisoned the region with instability and distrust,” said Ros-Lehtinen, adding, “the people of Venezuela deserve better. Rather than fomenting instability in the region, the Venezuelan government should be thinking of the welfare of its people.”

Ros-Lehtinen has been a long-standing leader in efforts to call attention to the troubling actions of the Venezuelan Government. In a hearing last month with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Ros-Lehtinen urged the State Department to look into reports of the legality of growing economic ties between Venezuelan companies with U.S. subsidiaries and Iran, a designated state sponsor of terrorism.
 
In its annual threat assessment released last month, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence describes how Venezuela has greatly increased its cooperation with Iran and has expressed a willingness to cooperate with that country on nuclear energy. Venezuela has also concluded nearly 200 bilateral agreements with Iran on military cooperation, the sharing of intelligence, and establishing direct civilian airline flights between Caracas and Tehran.
 
“The deliberate efforts on the part of Venezuelan leaders to forge extensive relationships with state sponsors of terrorism, including Iran and Cuba, are a direct affront to all who work to promote justice and freedom in the region,” stated Ros-Lehtinen. “As troubling reports of alliances in the Hemisphere continue to surface, Congress needs to stand side-by-side with our friends and rebuke our foes.  This resolution is the first step in drawing that bright line.”
 

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