Nicaragua: Over the Fence to Asylum
Early one morning last week, when most Nicaraguans were still asleep, Felix Pedro Espinoza Briones, a member of the National Assembly, was busy climbing the chain link fence surrounding the Venezuelan embassy in Managua. After diplomats began arriving for work, he entered the building and requested asylum. Espinoza, a critic of the Sandinista regime, apparently feared arrest. Such concerns are widespread in Nicaragua these days. Since the House passed legislation to give $100 million in aide to forces fighting the Sandinistas, President Daniel Ortega Saavedra has been cracking down on a wide range of opponents.
Later on the same day that Espinoza slipped into the embassy, the Nicaraguan Assembly stripped him of his legislative immunity so that he could be tried for arranging the burning of his own ranch house in order to blame and embarrass the government. Espinoza denied the charge.
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