MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela’s main opposition leader seeking asylum, ignores court order

Manuel Rosales on the “wanted” list of Chavez is on the run

Venezuela's main opposition leader is seeking asylum with a “friendly country” and will not appear in court to face corruption charges brought by President Hugo Chavez's government, opposition officials said on Monday.

Manuel Rosales, mayor of the oil city of Maracaibo and who founded the A New Time opposition party and ran against Chavez in the 2006 presidential election, is scheduled to address Venezuelans within 48 hours on the matter, said Omar Barboza, the party's president.

Rosales' allies say he is in hiding and cannot get a fair trial in the courts. Authorities said Rosales is unable to explain 60.000 US dollars in income and accuse him of embezzling the funds and avoiding justice. A crime punished with three to ten years of imprisonment.

“We have definitively decided that he will not appear before a court that has been converted into a political instrument or persecution,” Barboza said. He said asylum was better than going into hiding because what matters is “building the path back to full democracy and human rights”.

“It would be a political trophy for the Chavez administration, intimidating all dissidence; a sacrifice that would only benefit the government”, insisted Barboza.

The case has sparked criticism that President Chavez, who last year vowed to jail Rosales, is using the legal system to carry out witch-hunts against opposition leaders who won key posts in November's elections for governors and mayors. Maracaibo is Venezuela’s second largest city.

A court in Caracas was scheduled Monday to set a start date for the trial. Barboza said opposition leaders had found evidence the presiding judge had already prepared a ruling to have Rosales jailed, suggesting to them a rigged process.

Attorney General Luisa Ortega last week said a Caracas court had granted a state prosecutor's request to freeze property held by Rosales to ensure the state could recover any embezzled money. She called on Rosales to come out of hiding and face justice.

Encouraged by victory in the February referendum that lets him run for office indefinitely, Chavez has stripped control of ports and roads from opposition allies and the National Assembly recently approved a law allowing the executive to appoint a leader to oversee the governance of Caracas, weakening the influence of the capital city's opposition mayor, who is a fierce Chavez critic.