A Venezuelan man accused in the 2003
bombing of Spanish and Colombian
diplomatic missions in
Venezuela
has fled that country and was
seeking
asylum in
Miami.
Raul Diaz, 36, told
The
Associated Press on Monday
that he was able to escape because
he was allowed to leave a Venezuelan
jail during the day as long as he
returned at night. He had hoped to
leave legally so he could one day
return but feared being taken back
to jail, he said.
Diaz said he was taken by boat to
the island of Trinidad, where he
boarded a flight to Miami on Sept.
5. He said he planned to stay with
family in South Florida.
Four people were injured in the
explosions at the Spanish Embassy
and Colombian Consulate in Caracas
in 2003. Venezuelan officials said
at the time that the bombings were
meant to destabilize the government
of
President Hugo Chavez, who
shortly beforehand had warned
Spain
and
Colombia not to interfere in
Venezuelan affairs.
Diaz maintains he had no part in
the attack.
"The government knows I had
nothing to do with that and they
know I am innocent," he said.
A phone message and e-mail left
with his Miami attorney, Stephanie
Green, was not immediately returned.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services said it does not comment on
asylum cases.
A petition filed with the
Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights alleges Diaz was
illegally detained on Feb. 25, 2005.
It also claims that there were
irregularities in his criminal
proceedings and that he was detained
in
inhumane conditions.
A phone message was left for the
Venezuela Awareness Foundation, a
human
rights organization, which
filed the petition. The group
claimed Diaz was subjected to a lack
of medical care, cruel and inhumane
physical and mental treatment, and
to long periods of
solitary
confinement in subhuman
conditions.
The case was first reported by
El Nuevo
Herald.
U.S.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of
Miami met with Diaz on Friday and
sent letters to the
Organization of American States
and the
Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights asking for help in the
case.
Ros-Lehtinen said in a press
release that Diaz's case was an
example of the human rights
violations carried out by Chavez.
"The case of Mr. Diaz should
enlighten those who doubt that what
Chavez wants to install in Venezuela
is nothing short of a dictatorship,"
the release said.
