Venezuela's Fleeting President Seeks Colombian Sanctuary

The man who briefly replaced Hugo Chavez as president of Venezuela during last month's abortive military coup is seeking political asylum in Colombia. The news coincides with further unrest in Venezuela prompted by the investigation of the deaths that occurred during the coup.

Pedro Carmona, an economist and businessman, left his flat in Caracas, where he was under house arrest, earlier this week. He is now in the Colombian embassy.

Mr Carmona is central to the part played by the US at the time of the coup. The US says its ambassador, Charles Shapiro, warned him not to dissolve the national assembly. Mr Carmona denies it.

The Colombian foreign minister, Guillermo Fernandez, said that his government would decide on Mr Carmona's application as swiftly as possible, although Colombia is in the midst of a tumultuous presidential election.

Mr Carmona, aged 60, was installed as president on April 11 after the military authorities said on national television that Hugo Chavez, a populist leftwinger, had resigned in the wake of the violent protests against him.

Mr Carmona immediately dissolved the national assembly and the supreme court and announced a cabinet that included members of the far-right Catholic organisation Opus Dei.

Mr Chavez's supporters took to the streets and the Organisation of American States condemned the coup.

Within a day Mr Chavez had been reinstated. Some of the generals voiced their disquiet about Mr Carmona's actions, and he was put under house arrest.

In exile Mr Carmona could finally explain the circumstances of the coup.

In Caracas there have been further demonstrations against President Chavez and the prosecutor general, Isaias Rodriguez, who is investigating the deaths that occurred at the time of the coup.

The protesters say Mr Rodriguez is too close to Mr Chavez to carry out an objective inquiry.

An estimated 19 people died on the day of the coup and about 40 people died in the riots and fighting that followed it.

Opponents of Mr Chavez have accused his supporters of firing on unarmed demonstrators; the president's supporters say agents provocateurs were to blame.