30 Apr 2003 17:11:32 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela, April 30 (alertnet.org-Reuters) - Two Venezuelan army officers have sought diplomatic asylum in Uruguay, the latest in a string of military dissidents to seek refuge abroad a year after President Hugo Chavez survived a brief coup, an opposition source said Wednesday.

Army captains Otto Gebauer and Carlos Jose Blondell, who helped guard Chavez during the April 2002 rebellion, asked for refuge at the Uruguayan embassy in Caracas.

"They are asking for asylum in Uruguay," the source close to the case told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

An official at the embassy would not comment.

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 dissidents army officers, some who 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 also fled to the Colombian embassy 2002 along with a navy rear admiral under investigation for his coup role who asked for refuge in El Salvador.

2003-04-26 / etaiwannews.com-Associated Press /

Venezuela's government refused yesterday to sign an agreement that would pave the way for a referendum on President Hugo Chavez's presidency.

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said the government objected to several points of the agreement, which was announced April 11 by the Organization of American States after five months of negotiations.

Rangel's statements cast doubt on prospects for any vote on Chavez's six-year term, which ends in 2007. In December and January, Venezuela's opposition staged a general strike that briefly shut down the world's No. 5 oil exporter to demand a vote. Chavez didn't budge.

Venezuela's opposition wants to ask citizens whether Chavez should resign. Such a vote is allowed in Venezuela's constitution.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell recently said that if Chavez agreed to the vote, "then he will be showing a commitment to democracy of the kind we believe is the correct form of democracy for our hemisphere."

Rangel countered yesterday: "We reject all pressure coming from here and abroad."

Saying "Venezuela is not a colony," Rangel objected to a proposal that the process be monitored by the OAS, the United Nations and the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center.

An OAS-brokered proposal to disarm civilians before elections also violates Venezuelan sovereignty, Rangel said. Dozens have been killed in political violence over the past year. Chavez has been accused of arming thousands of civilians to defend his government.

<a href=www.sfgate.com>SFGate.com-AP Friday, April 25, 2003
(04-25) 18:00 PDT SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) --

The government is considering asylum for two former Venezuelan soldiers who allegedly held President Hugo Chavez in custody during a brief coup last year, officials said Friday.

Brothers Alfredo and Ricardo Salazar, both former army captains, entered the Dominican Embassy in Venezuela on Thursday and requested asylum. Their attorney said that they had received death threats.

"The Dominican Foreign Ministry is evaluating the information and corresponding documentation to make a decision," the ministry said in a statement.

During the coup, dissident generals briefly ousted Chavez. The action was spurred by violence that left 19 Venezuelans dead when opposition and pro-government marches clashed in downtown Caracas.

Loyalists in the military returned Chavez to power three days later on April 14.

Since then, the opposition has been pushing for a referendum on Chavez's rule, accusing him of trampling on democratic institutions and alienating investment with leftist policies. The president says his foes want to oust a democratically elected leader and restore power to two corrupt political parties that ruled Venezuela for four decades.

In addition to the brothers, two other Venezuelan army officers requested asylum -- at the Peruvian Embassy in Caracas, officials said Friday. Their request was being reviewed.

Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador Charles S. Shapiro urged Venezuela's government and opposition to strike a deal for a vote on Chavez's presidency, a day after the government refused to sign an internationally brokered pact on the matter.

Venezuela's constitution allows opponents to organize a referendum halfway into the president's six-year term, or next August.

Shapiro said foreign governments are "willing to help the government and opposition on this point if they ask for it."

<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.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, April 25, 2003 By: David Coleman

German Ambassador to Venezuela Hermann Erath has assured that his country has expectations and the fullest confidence that Venezuela will find a democratic solution to its present political-economic problems. After meeting with Executive Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel, Ambassador Erath emphasized the meeting as "open and fruitful" and confirmed that they will continue to strengthen relations in economic and other fields as well as cultural.

Meanwhile, Lothar Mark, a spokesman for the German Social Democratic Party on Latin American affairs, who also attended the meeting, said that they are interested in the situation in Venezuela, especially everything to do with the process of a revocatiry referendum ... "the process towards a referendum can count with all our attention and aspirations for democracy to find its true place in Venezuela."

"As regards the polarization of the Venezuelan process," Lothar Mark adds, "we truly regret the situation since a polarization is not conducive to making headway ... my visit serves to collect information who that we in Germany may be able each time to make the image of Venezuela more perfect."