September 6, 2012
A Venezuelan Diplomats Swift Rise Ends With a Murder in Kenya
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
CARACAS, Venezuela Dwight Sagarays rise in the Venezuelan foreign service was almost as swift as his downfall.
Within days of being hired at the Foreign Ministry in July 2010, Mr. Sagaray was sent to Kenya. A short time later, he was promoted to the No. 2 post at the embassy in Nairobi. Then, after the head of the diplomatic mission left the country in May amid sexual harassment charges, Mr. Sagaray, 35, suddenly became his countrys top representative in Kenya. He even moved into the ambassadors residence, according to news accounts.
But in mid-July, officials in Caracas sent a veteran diplomat, Olga Fonseca Giménez, to take over as chargé daffaires in Nairobi. Twelve days later, she was found strangled to death. The Kenyan authorities quickly took Mr. Sagaray into custody and charged him with murder.
It seemed a jaw-dropping case of diplomatic foul play, which the police said was motivated by jostling for positions in the embassy. But almost as stunning as the gruesome murder itself Ms. Fonseca was bound hand and foot and a rope was tied around her neck, according to local news reports was the rapidity with which Venezuelan officials stripped Mr. Sagaray of the diplomatic immunity that could have protected him.
For reasons that have not been explained, Venezuelan officials cleared the way for the Kenyan police to arrest and charge Mr. Sagaray within 24 hours of the discovery of the body on July 27, according to his familys lawyer.
Why did the government decide so quickly to take away diplomatic immunity? said Yenibel Lugo, a lawyer in Venezuela representing Mr. Sagaray and his family. She said Venezuelan officials did not have time to conduct an investigation before making the decision.
It is rare for a government to give up the immunity of one of its diplomats, according to experts in international law who were unable to point to a similar case. That has led to questions about what motivated the Venezuelan government to give Mr. Sagaray a high rank so quickly and then cut him loose so fast.
They threw him to the wolves, said Hector Griffin, a retired Venezuelan diplomat who said he knew Ms. Fonseca and had been hired as a lawyer by Mr. Sagarays family. It was he who gave the details of Mr. Sagarays hiring and promotion in Kenya.
Only a high-level official could have made the decision to remove Mr. Sagarays immunity, Mr. Griffin said, such as Foreign Minister Nícolas Maduro or even President Hugo Chávez.
Mr. Sagarays easy vault to a top post in the foreign service is emblematic of a diplomatic corps that has been transformed to meet political ends and reward loyalists within Mr. Chávezs Socialist-inspired revolution, according to retired diplomats critical of the government.
For many years before Mr. Chávez became president in 1999, a Civil Service test was used to choose applicants for many Foreign Ministry posts, and it could take years to rise to the level of first secretary, the position held by Mr. Sagaray, according to J. Gerson Revanales, another former diplomat.
But the Chávez administration discontinued the test and forced many veteran diplomats into retirement, he said. Other career diplomats were sidelined while politically connected newcomers were promoted over them, he said.
Mr. Sagaray had previously worked as a lawyer for the Labor Ministry, and his tasks included representing Venezuela at international meetings to discuss labor issues, said Ms. Lugo, his familys lawyer. She said she did not know why he had changed jobs or how he had obtained a post in the Foreign Ministry.
Ms. Lugo said she had met with Foreign Ministry officials last week, but that they did not explain why Mr. Sagarays immunity was taken away.
Problems at the embassy in Nairobi appear to have started some time after Mr. Sagarays arrival in mid-2010.
In an interview last month with the Caracas newspaper Últimas Noticias, the former head of the Nairobi diplomatic mission, Gerardo Carrillo-Silva, said that he had locked horns with Mr. Sagaray, who refused to recognize my authority. There was constant tension among the embassy staff, he said.
Mr. Carrillo-Silva then left Kenya abruptly in May, after workers at the official residence accused him of sexually harassing them. In the interview, Mr. Carrillo-Silva denied the accusations. Kenyan news accounts said some male workers at the embassy residence had accused the diplomat of exposing himself to them and chasing them around the house while naked.
In July, Ms. Fonseca was sent to take over the embassy, but her arrival in Kenya did not go well.
The employees who had accused Mr. Carrillo Silva of harassment said that Ms. Fonseca tried to pressure them to withdraw their accusations and threatened to fire them if they did not, according to news reports.
Ms. Fonsecas body was found on July 27 at the two-story ambassadors residence, which is surrounded by a large garden and the police detained Mr. Sagaray. Soon after, Venezuelan officials agreed to lift Mr. Sagarays immunity and the police placed him under arrest. The police are also looking for another suspect, identified in local news reports as a Nigerian doctor who is a friend of Mr. Sagarays.
Mr. Sagaray has pleaded not guilty and has a hearing at the end of the month on a request to be released until his trial.
The general stance that has been taken by my client is that he was nowhere near the scene of the killing on that night, said Stephen Ligunya, one of the lawyers representing Mr. Sagaray in Kenya. He was in his house.
He added, No witness at all places Dwight at the scene.
In Venezuela, officials would not speak about the case. Efforts to arrange an interview with a Foreign Ministry official through the Information Ministry in Caracas were not successful. Questions submitted to the ministry were not answered.
There is a theory that is gaining strength that it was because of internal problems among the staff at the embassy, Venezuelas justice minister, Tareck El Aissami, said after the murder, according to the Information Ministry.
María Eugenia Díaz contributed reporting from Caracas, and Reuben Kyama from Nairobi, Kenya.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/w...rges-in-kenya.html?src=rechp&pagewanted=print
