Costa Rica Refuses
Asylum To Colombian
President's Cousin
Costa Rica refused to
grant asylum on Tuesday
to a cousin of Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe
who is wanted by police
for suspected ties to
paramilitary squads, the
Ministerio de Relaciones
Exteriores y Culto de
Costa Rica ( Foreign
Ministry) said.
Mario Uribe, a longtime
senator and confidant of
the Colombian leader,
was seeking asylum in
the Costa Rican Embassy
in Bogotá after his
arrest was ordered
following testimony from
paramilitary warlords
that he asked them to
back his Senate campaign
and help him secure
cheap farmland.
A spokesman for the
Costa Rican Foreign
Ministry said Uribe's
asylum request had been
rejected and that if he
did not leave the
embassy in Bogotá of his
own accord, police would
be brought in to force
him to leave.
"The Foreign Ministry
considers it
inappropriate to grant
asylum to Mario Uribe,"
the ministry said in a
statement. |
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