Colombia Grants Political Asylum to Former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli
Colombia granted political asylum to former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, who left the Nicaraguan Embassy in Panama on Saturday, where he had been sheltering since February 2024.
The Colombian Foreign Ministry
in a statement that the decision was 'duly communicated' by President Gustavo Petro Urrego to the Panamanian government.
The decision was 'based on the observance of the pro persona principle and Colombia's humanist tradition of protecting persons persecuted for political reasons,' the Colombian government added.
After Martinelli was given asylum, the Panamanian government
him
safe passage for his 'prompt and safe departure' from the country to Colombia.
The Panamanian Foreign Ministry justified the safe passage granted to Martinelli by citing the 1933 Convention on Political Asylum. It also specified in a statement that Martinelli left 'in a diplomatic car from the Embassy of the Republic of Nicaragua in Panama City and then by plane bound for the territory of the Republic of Colombia.'
Martinelli, who was president of Panama between 2009 and 2014, thanked the Colombian government for its decision.
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'Happy and content because I am now in Bogotá, where I have been granted political asylum as a political refugee,' Martinelli, 73,
'Thank you very much to the Colombian government and President Gustavo Petro for granting me political asylum.'
Martinelli also said he was 'eternally grateful' to the Nicaraguan government for granting him asylum for 16 months in its embassy.
'Thanks to them, I was able to save my life,' he said.
Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti
Monday that the basis for the asylum granted by his country to Martinelli, who arrived in Bogotá on on May 10, must be reviewed. He said 'asylum has little to do with judicial issues' in an interview with Caracol Radio.
Martinelli, who is also a businessman, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for money laundering in July 2023 in connection with the purchase of a publishing group with public funds. He also faced charges in a separate case for alleged bribery and other allegations.
After the sentence was handed down, the former president sought refuge in the Nicaraguan diplomatic mission in Panama, after the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega granted him asylum. He remained in the embassy for more than a year.
Martinelli's previous request for safe passage out of the country was denied by the former Panamanian government, which warned that Ortega's government was trying to influence Panama's internal politics from the Nicaraguan diplomatic headquarters.
EFE and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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