LIMA, (Reuters) – Venezuela’s top opposition leader Manuel Rosales has fled to Peru and requested political asylum to escape corruption charges he says are retaliation for his criticism of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Rosales filed the asylum request yesterday after arriving in Peru last week with several of his children and members of three other families who oppose Chavez’s socialist policies, a source close to the situation told Reuters.
Rosales is being advised by Jorge Del Castillo, a powerful lawmaker and right-hand man to Peruvian President Alan Garcia, the same source said.
“He is a democrat. That’s why he is helping Rosales,” the source said about Del Castillo.
Garcia, an ally of Wash-ington and a fervent believer in free market reforms, has often criticized a new wave of Latin American left-wing leaders led by Chavez.
But Peru’s justice minister, Rosario Fernandez, said the asylum case would be judged on its merits and that Peru would not simply rubber stamp Rosales’ request.
A lawyer for Rosales, who says Chavez is turning Venezuela into a dictatorship modeled on Cuban communism, told a radio station in Lima his client has asked Peru for asylum.
Peru has accepted several Venezuelan asylum seekers in recent years, including a union leader central to efforts to force Chavez from office that led to a short-lived coup in 2002.
Chavez vowed last year to arrest Rosales, and the former presidential candidate went into hiding last month after charges of illicit enrichment were filed against him.
Chavez easily beat Rosales in a 2006 presidential election and remains by far the most popular politician in Venezuela.
Even so, his government has pushed hard against opponents in recent months, stripping them of powers and filing corruption charges. The moves have put the opposition on the defensive after it made gains in regional elections in November.
Rosales, whose assets were frozen last week, is the most visible face of Venezuela’s fractured opposition and is the current mayor of the country’s second-biggest city Maracaibo in the wealthy oil state of Zulia.
Prosecutors say Rosales cannot explain the source of $60,000 he made while he was governor of Zulia and an advertising campaign on state television accuses him of owning million dollar houses and shopping malls in Miami.
A pretrial hearing originally scheduled for Monday was postponed after Rosales did not show up. No arrest warrant has been issued against him.
Corruption is widespread on both sides of Venezuela’s political divide but graft investigations rarely focus on government officials.
After a decade in office, Chavez allies control Congress and dominate Venezuela’s supreme court. He does not control many lower tribunals.
