Managua Frees Fugitive Whose Arrest Derailed Peace Meeting

A Nicaraguan whose arrest at the Costa Rican Embassy triggered the collapse of a regional peace meeting was released Tuesday by the Nicaraguan government and sent into exile.

Jose Urbina Lara, 24, later arrived in the Colombian capital of Bogota aboard a Colombian air force plane and told reporters that Nicaraguan authorities had taken him by force last Dec. 24 from the Costa Rican Embassy, where he sought political asylum.

The Sandinista government has said that Urbina gave himself up.

Contadora Talks Boycotted

Nicaragua’s refusal to release Urbina prompted Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras to boycott a February meeting for all Central American countries that was called by the four-nation Contadora Group, which is seeking peace in the region.

In San Jose, Costa Rican Foreign Minister Carlos Jose Gutierrez said, “Costa Rica’s demand has been satisfied,” and he pledged that the country will again participate in the peace talks.

“Tuesday morning, Nicaragua released Urbina to the Colombian ambassador, and he was accompanied to the airport by the four Contadora ambassadors for the flight to Bogota,” a diplomatic source in Managua said.

Urbina, speaking in Bogota, said of the night he was arrested: “It was Dec. 24th, and there was nobody in the (Costa Rican) embassy, they were all in Costa Rica. They (the Sandinistas) took me out of the embassy by force.

“I’m not a deserter,” he said regarding Sandinista charges that he sought asylum to avoid the military draft.

He said he was exempt from the military because he is married with children.

“I’m anti-Sandinista,” said Urbina, adding that he would like to return to fight against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. “It’s an oppressor regime.”

There was no immediate comment from the Sandinista government on his release.

Colombian Foreign Minister Augusto Ramirez told Bogota radio station RCN that by negotiating Urbina’s release, the Contadora Group “fulfilled the mandate of the Organization of American States to resolve this problem.”

The Contadora Group--Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Panama--began searching two years ago for a negotiated solution to the Central American conflict.