Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales has arrived in Peru on a tourist visa, the foreign minister told CNN today.
Mr Rosales's Un Nuevo Tiempo party had said yesterday he would seek foreign asylum.
Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Garcia said Mr Rosales had arrived in Peru but had not yet asked for asylum.
The politician has recently been in hiding in Venezuela and refused to turn himself in on corruption charges that were filed against him.
Last week, a Venezuelan court froze the assets of the opposition leader following corruption charges by the government of leftist President Hugo Chavez, the government said today.
Mr Chavez's critics call the case against Mr Rosales a witch-hunt meant to emasculate the opposition, but the president's supporters call it a simple corruption investigation and accuse Rosales of evading justice.
Authorities say Mr Rosales, mayor of the second city of Maracaibo, was unable to explain some $60,000 in income when he was governor of the oil-rich state of Zulia.
Reuters