Uruguay Grants Asylum to Two Venezuelan Officers

Wed April 30, 2003 08:20 PM ET

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - Uruguay granted diplomatic asylum on Wednesday to two Venezuelan army officers, the latest in a string of military dissidents to seek refuge abroad since Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez survived a brief coup a year ago.

Army captains Otto Gebauer and Carlos Jose Blondell, who helped guard a detained Chavez during the April 2002 rebellion, requested asylum at the Uruguayan Embassy in Caracas on Tuesday, said Foreign Relations Minister Didier Opertti.

"Uruguay's government has decided to grant asylum ... in accordance with the 1954 Inter-American Convention on diplomatic asylum," a ministry press release stated.

The two officers are staying in the Uruguayan ambassador's residence in Venezuela until Venezuelan authorities permit them to travel to Uruguay, the release said.

Chavez, elected in 1998 on promises to ease poverty, has sought to bring to trial dissident military officers and some opposition leaders on rebellion and treason charges.

The Venezuelan leader has been locked in a bitter political struggle for more than a year with his opponents, who accuse him of ruling the world's No. 5 oil exporter like a dictator.

More than 100 dissident army officers, some of whom participated directly in the April coup, have staged a campaign of disobedience based in a Caracas square since October 2002.

Peru's Foreign Ministry said last week it had granted refuge to two other army officers. The Dominican Republic is reviewing an asylum request from two army captains who also guarded Chavez while he was held during the April 2002 coup.

The recent spate of applications by military officers came a month after Costa Rica granted asylum to the Venezuelan union chief who spearheaded an opposition strike in December and January to try to force Chavez to resign.

The businessman who briefly replaced Chavez in the coup fled to the Colombian Embassy in 2002, while a navy rear admiral under investigation for his coup role sought refuge in El Salvador.