Patterico quotes an L.A. Times story about the FARC laptops captured by the Colombian government in March, containing thousands of files implicating Hugo Chavez and other leftists in various crimes and blunders. Although the files have been authenticated by Interpol, the Times and various web-trolls continue to insist that the question of Chavez’ guilt is still open. Patterico bold-faces the most significant sentence in the Times story:

No independent confirmation of the laptops’ content has been made, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has denied the Colombian charges.

This seems to be false. As Gateway Pundit noted at the time, at least one bit of information on the laptops was confirmed almost immediately:

Colombian authorities tipped off Costa Rican officials about a huge stash of FARC cash in an old safe house earlier this month. Costa Rica confiscated $480,000 of FARC cash in the raid. The Colombians discovered this information from the computers seized during the raid on FARC leader Raul Reyes in Ecuador.

It hardly matters whether the Times reporters do not know that, or know it and prefer not to mention it. No honest and competent journalist could omit mention of the Costa Rican safe-house cash as strong evidence confirming the authenticity of the laptop files.