On Monday, Spain’s Ministry of the Interior granted political asylum to Colombian gay rights activist Manuel Velandia, on grounds of sexual discrimination, reports Velandia’s blog.
Velandia said that “the granting of his asylum demonstrated that Spain fully acknowledges sexual diversity and that sexual orientation is a right which is violated in Colombia for lesbians, gays and bisexuals”.
Co-founder of the Movement for Homosexual Liberation of Colombia in 1976, Velandia left his country in 2007 after a grenade attack was carried out against him, reports magazine Semana. The attack followed recurrent anonymous death threats against him and his family.
His request for asylum was made in San Sebastian through the Spanish Red Cross with the help from the Commission for Refugees in Basque Country and from Basque LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) organisation Gehitu.
Indeed, in this country, distributions of pamphlets for “social cleansing” threatening such minorities as homosexuals are regularly reported.