Peruvian Denies Making Noriega Asylum Offer

The charge d’affaires of the Peruvian Embassy here denied Tuesday that Alan Garcia, his country’s president, had offered political asylum to deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega.

A U.S. official, however, told The Times that internal cable reports showed that Garcia had offered asylum to Noriega.

Carlos Pareja, the Peruvian envoy, said that the issue of asylum “should be dealt with only between the Vatican and the government of the U.S.” He added that Garcia had “said several months ago that Noriega was a dictator, so he is not offering him political asylum.”

Pareja did confirm, however, that Peru’s embassy in Panama City has granted asylum to at least four of Noriega’s supporters since the U.S. invasion last Wednesday.

Garcia, 40, a populist voted into office in 1985, has been a leading Latin American critic of the U.S. action in Panama. He angrily denounced the invasion, branding it “brutal, excessive, exaggerated, abusive and arrogant.” He proposed Monday that Latin American forces replace U.S. troops in Panama and, then, that new Panamanian elections take place.

To underscore his disapproval, he recalled Peru’s ambassador to Washington, and last Friday canceled his participation in the scheduled February drug summit with President Bush and the presidents of Colombia and Bolivia.

Now, “they’re back cooperating with the Drug Enforcement Administration on drug matters,” said David Runkel, special assistant to U.S. Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh.