Col. Roberto Diaz Herrera, the retired military officer who touched off a political crisis here last week, says he is seeking political asylum in Canada.
Diaz has accused Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, the nation`s top military commander, of directing the 1981 murder of Noriega`s predecessor, Gen. Omar Torrijos, killing his chief opponent and rigging the 1984 presidential election.
Diaz, 49, says he believes his life is in danger as long as he stays in Panama.
The colonel already had been granted asylum by Spain, but he said Wednesday that he had been persuaded by Archbishop Oscar Brown of Panama City to ask Canada to receive him.
Diaz said he had decided against going to Spain after learning that Noriega planned to seek his extradition back to Panama once he arrived in Europe.
He said he did not believe extradition would be a problem in Canada.
Since he was forced to retire from the military less than two weeks ago, Diaz has been holed up in his mansion in the capital`s most exclusive neighborhood, surrounded by bodyguards, family members, priests and nuns.
He has said he paid for the elaborate home with money he received in bribes to arrange visas for Cubans seeking to enter Panama.
The former No. 2 man in the Panamanian Defense Forces rambled as he told reporters his reasons for choosing Montreal.
”We prefer Canada . . . because there I can learn English better than I can in Spain, and French, too,” he said in Spanish as he sat in his lush garden next to a swimming pool.
”I also have a daughter who likes snow.”
He said the archbishop had persuaded him to leave Panama because his security and that of his family could not be guaranteed.
He said he had asked the prelate to petition Canada to grant him asylum.
Diaz`s accusations against Noriega touched off four days of antigovernment demonstrations last week in which at least two people were killed.
The violence led the government to impose a state of emergency. Under that declaration, known here as a ”state of urgency,” many civil liberties have been suspended and the nation`s independent press and radio have been censored.
The government has the power to order such a declaration for up to 10 days, but legislators said Wednesday that it might be extended.
Raul Montenegro, a legislator from the governing Democratic Revolutionary Party, said he thought the emergency would have to be extended for perhaps 20 days because the populace is responding to ”emotion rather than reason.”
Under Panamanian law, any such extension requires authorization by the legislature, in which the governing party holds 34 of the 67 seats.
