Venezuelan opposition leader seeks asylum in Peru

Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 9:44 PM Posted by Beijing News


Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales sought asylum in Peru, claiming he was being persecuted by the government of President Hugo Chavez on baseless corruption charges.

Rosales, who ran against Chavez for president in 2006, is former governor of the oil-rich state of Zulia and current mayor of the western Venezuelan city of Maracaibo.

Rosales's attorney, Peruvian legislator Javier Valle Riestra, said the asylum request was presented to local authorities at midday.

"Now all that is left is to wait for the answer from the Peruvian government, which has two months to decide," Valle Riesta told AFP.

Valle Riestra -- himself a prominent legislator with the ruling APRA party and briefly prime minister in the 1990s -- said that granting Rosales asylum should not be considered a move by Peru against Chavez.

"If he is granted asylum ... that does not mean that Chavez is being considered as a gorilla, a thug or a despot," Valle Riestra said.

Rosales has been hiding from Venezuelan authorities for the past month after the corruption charges were filed.

An outspoken Chavez critic, Rosales ran afoul of the leftist president after he was linked to a 2002 attempted coup against the Venezuelan leader.

Chavez accused Rosales on the campaign trail for regional elections in October of plotting to assassinate him, and threatened to have him jailed.

In Venezuela, Interior Minister Tarek El Aissami said Tuesday that authorities were seeking Rosales' arrest on charges of illicit enrichment linked to the period he was Zulia governor between 2002-2004.

"If he does not present himself to the relevant authorities," El Aissami told reporters, Rosales "will be considered a fugitive of justice and the mechanisms for his international capture will be activated."

El Aissami insists that Rosales is not being politically persecuted. "He is wanted by Venezuelan justice for crimes of corruption" unrelated to politics, he said.

Rosales faces between three and 10 years in prison if found guilty of corruption.

The Maracaibo mayor was supposed to appear in a Caracas court on Monday to determine if he would be jailed pending trial. A new hearing on preventive detention was set for May 11, a member of Rosales's defense team said.

The leader of Rosales's A New Era party, Omar Barboza, said the party had decided Rosales should not surrender to the Venezuelan justice system.

"This is a very clear case of political persecution," Barboza said. "Rosales would not be surrendering to Venezuelan justice but rather to Hugo Chavez who is persecuting him ... He would be a trophy for the government to show everyone to intimidate other dissidents."

"All the power of the Venezuelan government has been activated to morally destroy" Rosales, said New Era party vice president Timoteo Zambrano, also in Lima.

The next step will involve Rosales delivering an affidavit explaining his situation, with Peru's foreign ministry then ruling on the asylum request, Valle Riestra said.





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