Chavez and FARC

Article that is part of a common genre: all opponents of the USA deal drugs. No real evidence, just a series of allegations by defectors and anonymous "diplomats". Nevertheless, this is a proper subject for research, as it raises issues about the relationship between organised crime, the state and "terrorists", insurgents and liberation movements.
Are liberation movements as likely to be penetrated by organised crime as state structures? How do the networks interact?
Does the fact that one group of border guards takes bribes from drug traffickers mean that the whole Venezuelan Army is corrupt?
Equally, if a local FARC commander facilitates drug smuggling does that imply connivance from the organisation as a whole?
These are legitimate questions to raise, but the evidence presented here doesn't really answer them. I suppose its fine for journalists to be used by propagandists, but can an investigative academic researcher provide a theoretical framework and a series of empirical tests against which these questions can be objectively explored? or does it always depend on who finances the research?