The brother of “FARC chancellor” Rodrigo Granda arrived in Nicaragua on Thursday and thanked President Daniel Ortega for granting him asylum there.
“I want to thank President Daniel Ortega for the big heart that he has, for that supportive heart and above all brave heart,” said Ruben Dario Granda upon his arrival to Managua on a commercial flight from Colombia by way of Panama.
Asylum has also been granted to Granda’s wife, Elba Mercedes Arango, and their son.
Granda told state reporters, the only press allowed access to his arrival, that he had avoided “a typical bloody crime, a legal false positive,” in his escape from Colombia.
He added that Colombian authorities “want to exterminate me morally” and in that way commit a “hate crime.”
“I am a teacher with 27 years of experience, and have been department chair in public and private institutions. In addition, I have worked for the Colombian Attorney General, and the office of the comptroller in Bogota, and in public sector businesses in Medellin. I am a consultant, researcher, and academic,” he said.
Granda and his family entered the Nicaraguan embassy in Bogota at the end of May to ask for political asylum, which was given to the family on June 4.
The Colombian government has accused Granda of crimes such as financing and management of resources related to terrorism and conspiracy to commit crime and foment rebellion.
According to Colombian authorities, Ruben Dario Granda was in charge of making large financial transactions with FARC money, which included purchases of land, recreation centers, and other types of real estate.
Nevertheless, after Granda was detained in Bogota last April, a judge considered the evidence presented to accuse him of financing and managing terrorist networks to be legally dubious.
Granda’s name supposedly appears in documents kept in the computer of Luis Edgar Devia, alias “Raul Reyes,” the international spokesman of FARC who was killed in a Colombian military operation in Ecuadorean territory in 2008.
Nicaragua has previously granted asylum during the Ortega administration to Mexican Lucia Morett and three other alleged Colombian guerillas that survived the military attack that killed Raul Reyes.