Spain and Venezuela appeared headed for a diplomatic face-off after a Spanish judge on Monday accused Caracas of collaborating with rebel groups to assassinate Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and other top political figures.

Spanish National Court Judge Eloy Velasco alleged Monday that the Venezuelan government had collaborated with Basque separatist group ETA and Colombia’s main guerrilla group in a plot against leaders living in or traveling to Spain that began in late 2003.

The allegations were part of an indictment that ordered 12 alleged members of ETA and of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to stand trial on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and terrorism, according to a copy reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

“There is evidence…showing the cooperation of the Venezuelan government in the illegal collaboration between FARC and ETA,” according to the indictment.

Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, speaking at a news conference Monday in Hanover, Germany, said he had ordered his Foreign Ministry to “request an explanation from the Venezuelan government” regarding the allegations. “We are awaiting such explanation,” Mr. Zapatero said.

Caracas responded angrily to the allegations. Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement, dismissed the charges as “biased and unfounded.”

Hayden Pirela, a congressman from the ruling coalition of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, said the Spanish judge’s allegations were part of a campaign “to discredit Venezuela,” adding: “We don’t give guerrillas refuge, or have any pact with guerrillas.”

The allegations come at a bad time for Mr. Chávez, whose popularity is falling due to electricity shortages and an economy mired in recession and high inflation. They could also prove tricky for Colombia and Spain, both of which have been trying to move beyond past differences with Venezuela’s populist leader.

The indictments also bring fresh attention to Spain’s National Court, whose judges act on their own investigations and are independent from Spain’s executive and legislative branches. Some judges have gained international attention, and criticism, for their handling of global cases involving other governments, including an investigation into allegations of U.S. torture at Guantanamo Bay.

Mr. Velasco, by contrast, has handled mainly local and less controversial terrorism cases, maintaining a low profile domestically and internationally.

Mr. Uribe, one of the targets of the alleged assassination plots, reacted cautiously.

“I think we should react prudently and see what is going on through diplomatic channels,” he told Colombian radio from Uruguay.

Another alleged target, former Colombian President Ándres Pastrana, also demanded an explanation from Venezuela. “We are talking about an alleged plot against the lives of, among others, two Colombian acting heads of state,” he said in a statement.

Mr. Velasco issued international arrest warrants and extradition requests for the 12 men named in the indictment, all of whom allegedly belong to either ETA or FARC and whose whereabouts are unknown. One man, identified as Arturo Cubillas Fontán, is believed to be living in Venezuela.

In detailing Caracas’s alleged role, Mr. Velasco pointed to Mr. Cubillas Fontán, who the judge says led ETA’s activities in Latin America since 1999 and acted as a link with the FARC. It says Mr. Cubillas Fontán was hired by Venezuela’s Agriculture Ministry in 2005.

Mr. Cubillas Fontán’s alleged contacts with the FARC included “military training for ETA members in the Colombian jungle, in exchange for ETA’s help in Spain, locating terrorist targets sought by FARC,” according to the indictment. Those targets included visiting Colombian dignitaries, including Messrs. Pastrana and Uribe and current Vice President Francisco Santos.

The document also says that during a training course on explosives, FARC members were accompanied by “an escort vehicle with Venezuelan soldiers that was arranged and organized” by Mr. Cubillas Fontán and another person.

Venezuela’s government, in its statement, said Mr. Cubillas Fontán had been living in Venezuela since 1989 under a deal struck by then-Venezuelan leader Carlos Andrés Pérez and former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González.

Information used in the indictment came from the laptop computer of a top FARC guerrilla commander killed by Colombian forces in 2008. In the months that followed, the computer files revealed what international intelligence officials say are close ties between the FARC and top members of Mr. Chávez’s government.

The Venezuelan government has long insisted that the information from the computers was made up by the Colombian government in an attempt to discredit Mr. Chávez, an allegation Colombia denies.

The indictments will prove challenging for Spain, one of Venezuela’s major trade partners. The two sides improved their diplomatic relations under the stewardship of Mr. Zapatero, a leftist, but the road hasn’t been smooth.

Mr. Chávez seized the Venezuelan franchise of Banco Santander, though the improved relations with Madrid might have helped the Spanish financial giant secure a $1.05 billion payment for the unit, more than many analysts expected.

Colombia has also been trying to mend fences with Venezuela, despite a rocky relationship in the past few years thanks largely to ideological differences between Mr. Chávez and the conservative Mr. Uribe. Last year, after Mr. Uribe agreed to host U.S. bases in Colombia, Mr. Chávez cut economic ties.

Last week, Mr. Chávez and Mr. Uribe got in a shouting match at a regional meeting of heads of state in Cancun, after Mr. Uribe told the Venezuelan leader to “be a man” and discuss the Venezuelan trade embargo. In the following days, both sides said they would try to bury the hatchet.

In addition to the 12 people who were ordered to stand trial on murder and terrorism charges, Mr. Velasco also charged Remedios García Albert with the crime of collaboration with a terrorist group and ordered her to stand trial, according to the indictment.

In the document, Mr. Velasco described Ms. García Albert as an alleged member of FARC’s international support group residing in Spain and ordered her present herself in court for questioning on March 24.

According to court officials, Ms. García Albert, a Spanish national, is free on bail linked to another terrorism case. A lawyer for Ms. García Albert wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Spain doesn’t try people in absentia, so a trial for the other 12 people would take place only if they are arrested.

Latin America’s oldest and biggest guerrilla group, the FARC has been fighting to overthrow the Colombian government and install a Marxist dictatorship for four decades.

Once close to taking the capital in 2001, the group has been put on its heels by Mr. Uribe, a provincial lawyer who has revamped Colombia’s military and driven the rebels back into Colombia’s jungles.

In 2008, the Colombian army bombed the jungle hideout of Rául Reyes, the group’s No. 2 commander. His laptop included details of attempts by top Venezuelan military and intelligence officials to give money and weapons to the FARC, which, like ETA is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union.

Once a peasant guerrilla army, the FARC lost most of its ideological motivation and turned to drug trafficking, extortion and kidnapping for funding. It now has an estimated 8,000 combatants under arms, down from a high of about 18,000.

—Darcy Crowe contributed to this article.

Source: Wall Street Journal

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