Venezuela Dissidents Seek Peru Asylum-Source
<a href=reuters.com>Reuters Fri April 25, 2003 11:29 AM ET
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Two more dissident Venezuelan military officers have asked for political asylum in the wake of last year's short-lived coup against President Hugo Chavez, a source close to the case said on Friday.
An army captain and a sub-lieutenant sought refuge at the Peruvian Embassy in Caracas on Thursday and were inside the diplomatic mission, the source told Reuters.
An embassy official declined comment.
Their application came after two officers who took part in the April 2002 rebellion against Chavez, army captains Ricardo and Alfredo Salazar, asked for asylum in the Embassy of the Dominican Republic in Caracas on Thursday.
The brothers escorted Chavez to an island off the Venezuelan coast during the coup before he returned to power 48 hours later.
Their attorney said the brothers, who faced charges of military rebellion and of holding the president prisoner, feared threats and political persecution.
Dominican officials said the pair would stay at the diplomatic mission while their application was reviewed.
The flurry of asylum applications came a month after Costa Rica granted asylum to Venezuelan union chief Carlos Ortega, who led an opposition strike in December and January to try to force Chavez to resign.
Businessman Pedro Carmona, who briefly replaced Chavez in the coup, was allowed to leave last year for Colombia and navy Rear Adm. Carlos Molina, under investigation for his coup role, fled to El Salvador.
Chavez, who was elected in 1998 on a populist platform, has sought to bring to trial rebel military officers and the opposition leaders who organized the two-month strike by charging them with treason and rebellion.
Foes of the leftist former paratrooper accuse him of dictatorial rule and of driving the world's fifth largest oil exporter into political and economic ruin.
But he says his political enemies seek to undermine his self-styled revolution aimed at easing the plight of the poor.