Venezuela Won't Contest Decision if Carmona Gets Asylum

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AP via Yahoo - May 25, 2002 1:09 am ET

Venezuela to Respect Asylum Decision 

by Christopher Toothacker

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela said it won't object if Colombia
grants asylum to the figurehead of a short-lived coup who escaped
house arrest and fled to the Colombian ambassador's residence.

"Venezuela respects international treaties. We are obliged to, under
the asylum laws," Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said late Friday
in the first reaction by a top Venezuelan official to the asylum
request by Pedro Carmona.

Carmona, who briefly replaced President Hugo Chavez last month, went
for a walk outside his home in Caracas on Thursday morning, then
slipped away, his lawyer said. A day earlier, a court had ordered him
transferred from house arrest to jail.

Facing trial and a possible 20-year sentence for the April 12-14
rebellion, Carmona sought refuge at the Colombian ambassador's
residence and asked for political asylum. A decision was pending.

The coup was condemned by the Organization of American States, and
though Rangel said a granting of asylum wouldn't hurt relations with
Colombia, other officials said it could leave bitter feelings with
Venezuelans.

"Venezuela is amazed by what happened," Cabello said. "The Venezuelan
people always will remember where he is - in Colombia - if they give
him asylum."

"Venezuelan justice should have tried him," said Tarek William Saab,
head of the National Assembly's foreign affairs committee and a
Chavez confidante.

Carmona denies conspiring to overthrow Chavez's government, saying he
accepted the presidency during the April coup because he believed
Chavez had resigned.

Colombia has long suspected Chavez of sympathizing with leftist
Colombian rebels. Chavez insists he has used his rebel connections to
broker peace talks and win hostages' release.

In April, Colombian officials openly expressed relief when rebel
Venezuelan troops claimed - falsely, it turned out - that Chavez had
resigned.

Also Friday, the head of Venezuela's most powerful labor group
demanded that Chavez resign and accused Chavez's armed supporters of
ambushing a peaceful opposition march that provoked the bloody coup.

Chavez has "taken the country to its worst crisis in its democratic
history," declared Carlos Ortega, president of the 1 million-member
Venezuelan Workers Confederation.

Ortega spoke to the Chavez-dominated National Assembly during a
hearing into shootings at a massive opposition march that left 17
people dead and hundreds wounded on April 11.

The shootings provoked a coup the next day by rebel military
officers, who installed business leader Carmona as interim president.
Chavez was restored to power April 14 after Carmona dissolved many of
Venezuela's democratic institutions, triggering a popular rebellion.
Dozens more died during the crisis.

Ortega accused pro-Chavez neighborhood associations known as
Bolivarian Circles of ambushing the opposition march. He also
condemned Chavez for yanking private TV stations off the air during
the April 11 violence.

Chavez's government denies arming the Bolivarian Circles, which it
bills as self-help groups.

There was no immediate response from Chavez, who has kept a
relatively low profile since the coup and canceled a scheduled
appearance at an army base Friday.

But pro-Chavez lawmaker Luis Tascon said Ortega bore responsibility
for the April 11 deaths by permitting the march to proceed, without
permits, to a presidential palace surrounded by Chavez supporters.

"It was an independent decision by 1 million people to go there,"
Ortega responded. "Is that a crime? I don't think so. The crime was
the ambush of the peaceful march."
 
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