LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Brazil said Friday it was granting asylum to a Bolivian opposition senator who has holed up in its embassy in La Paz claiming political persecution and saying he feared for his life.
The announcement about Sen. Roger Pinto came in a one-sentence email that did not explain Brazil’s reasoning for granting the request.
Pinto, a member of Bolivia’s small right-wing opposition bloc in congress, has been living in the embassy since May 28.
He says he and his family have faced death threats because of his opposition to leftist President Evo Morales.
But Bolivia’s government says Pinto’s exile is an opposition smear campaign against Morales. It accuses Pinto of corruption and wants him on criminal charges including economic damage to the state from when he was governor of the northern state of Pando, which borders Brazil.
Pinto did not make any statement but one of his colleagues, Sen. Geanine Anez, said Brazil had confirmed Pinto’s accusations.
Calls to Brazil’s Foreign Ministry seeking comment on Friday were not returned.
Pinto is the first opponent of Morales from Bolivia’s weak, splintered opposition to obtain asylum in Brazil.
Others have obtained it in Peru and Paraguay, where former Tarija state Gov. Mario Cosio fled after being charged with corruption.
Pinto was allied with Cosio and three other lowlands opposition governors who rebelled against Morales in 2008.
But Morales won a referendum the following year that quashed the rebellion. That’s when the prosecutions of opposition leaders for alleged corruption began.
Pinto is a close political ally of former Pando Gov. Leopoldo Fernandez.
He has been in jail pending trial for more than three years, charged with instigating a crackdown in September 2008 that claimed the lives of nine indigenous Morales supporters.
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Associated Press writer Bradley Brooks contributed to this report from Sao Paulo, Brazil
