Posted on Thu, Jul. 29, 2004
ASYLUM CASE
Venezuelan admits contact with fugitive
A former Venezuelan military officer, held at Krome, ends immigration-court testimony -- acknowledging contacts with a fugitive accused of plotting President Hugo Chávez's overthrow.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@herald.com
Former Venezuelan National Guard Lt. José Antonio Colina, charged with bombing the Spanish embassy and Colombian consulate in Caracas, acknowledged in court this week he has been in indirect contact with a fugitive Venezuelan general accused of plotting the violent downfall of President Hugo Chávez.
In cross-examination by Homeland Security assistant chief counsel Gina Garrett Jackson, Colina said that while at Krome he received and sent messages through an intermediary, a woman, to Gen. Felipe Rodríguez -- in hiding since also being charged in the Feb. 25, 2003, bombings that left four people injured.
Colina was not asked about the content of the messages, but government prosecutors apparently hope his answers will persuade immigration Judge Neale Foster not to give him asylum. Colina's attorney, Leopoldo Ochoa, said he would not comment on the matter.
Garrett Jackson's questions seemed aimed at showing Colina is linked to people who want to destroy democracy and that he fled Venezuela to avoid a legitimate criminal process -- not torture or death as he testified earlier.
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