Fugitive from the Venezuelan justice system, Manuel Rosales expressed regret for having signed the coup decree which dissolved all public powers in the country on April 2002, during the brief dictatorship of businessman Pedro Carmona.
The U.S. government is complicit in protecting former Zulia State Governor Manuel Rosales, who gave a speech in Washington, D.C. last week even though there is a red alert for his arrest before Interpol, said Venezuela’s justice and internal affairs minister, Tarek El Aissami.
In interview footage obtained by Al Jazeera a Colombian paramilitary confirmed that a "wealthy Venezuelan politician" named Manuel Rosales, offered him $25 million to assassinate President Chávez by any means.
By Federico Fuentes - Green Left Weekly, May 5th 2009
Confronted by the global economic crisis
and a sharp drop in oil prices, the Venezuelan government has launched
an offensive against corruption as part of its austerity drive.
The Peruvian government stands accused of degrading the concept
and practice of political asylum by granting it to one of the most
well-known crooks in Venezuela. Manuel Rosales ran against President
Chávez in the 2006 presidential elections and lost by a very wide
margin.
On Monday, Peru's Foreign Relations Ministry granted political asylum to Manuel Rosales, a leading opposition figure and former presidential candidate who is wanted in Venezuela for stealing public funds and accepting bribes during his term as governor of Zulia state.
A Venezuelan court has issued an arrest warrant and requested that the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) apprehend the mayor of Maracaibo, Manuel Rosales, who fled to Peru and sought political asylum this week to avoid being tried for corruption.
Manuel Rosales, a prominent Venezuelan opposition leader and mayor of Maracaibo facing corruption charges, failed to appear at a court appointment on Monday and has reportedly arrived in Peru and sought political asylum.
In Venezuela, a controversy has arisen over the unknown whereabouts of
a prominent opposition leader and mayor of Maracaibo, Manuel Rosales,
who faces corruption charges and is suspected to have fled the country.
Venezuelan prosecutor Katuiska
Plaza has asked the Attorney General's office to issue an arrest warrant for
Manuel Rosales, the former governor of Zulia state and recently elected mayor
of Maracaibo, on charges of illicit self-enrichment with public funds.
