CTV Ortega has NOT asked for territorial asylum; weighing up options

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, March 16, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Playing cat and mouse game, Venezuelan Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV) president Carlos Ortega’s lawyer, Omar Estacio has declared that his client has not asked for territorial asylum.

Splitting words, Estacio admits that Ortega has asked for and received diplomatic asylum but is currently assessing his options.

This morning the lawyer visited the Costa Rican Embassy where Ortega is holed up and afterwards threw out a suggestion that the Inter American system offers a series of alternatives and Ortega is weighing them up before making a final decision.

Among the alternatives under discussion is for Ortega to hand himself over to the authorities creating a potential security problem for the government.

Observers say the government will not offer Ortega house arrest but preventive arrest until his trial comes up.

Ortega is said to be angry about reactions to his asylum among the opposition and inside the CTV itself. It has been learned that lawyers have been putting out feelers to people connected to the Inter American Human Rights Court about the viability of obtaining a legal restraining order against the government for alleged human rights against the trade union leader.