Colombia offers asylum to Ortega

Santos’ move risks tensions with Maduro

BOGOTA, Aug 21, (AFP): Colombia offered asylum and government protection Monday to Venezuela’s sacked chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega, who fled her country after defying President Nicolas Maduro over a deadly political crisis.

The move by Colombia’s Juan Manuel Santos risked raising tensions with Maduro, under pressure from regional and international powers who accuse him of repressing his opponents.

A former loyalist of the socialist leadership, the 59-yearold Ortega had broken ranks with Maduro to become his most high-ranking domestic critic.

“Luisa Ortega is under the protection of the Colombian government. If she asks for asylum, we will grant it to her,” Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos said on Twitter.

Ortega

Immigration officials in Colombia said Ortega arrived in the country on Friday with her husband, lawmaker German Ferrer, on a private flight from the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba.

Ferrer himself faces an arrest warrant issued by the pro-Maduro Supreme Court for alleged corruption.

Ortega was already facing prosecution in the pro-Maduro court for alleged misconduct. She rejected the charges against her as “political persecution.”

Venezuelan authorities had banned her from traveling abroad.

Maduro has faced months of deadly mass protests by opponents who blame him for an economic crisis and are demanding elections to replace him.

Last month, he set up a new constitutional authority packed with his allies, which a few days later removed Ortega from her post.

She hit back on Friday by claiming she had evidence implicating Maduro and his close allies in an international bribery scandal involving Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht.