Two Venezuelan dissidents who sought asylum in the Dominican Republic last week have had their applications granted by the Ministry of Foreign Relations. Retired army captains Alfredo David and Ricardo Arturo Salaz?r Bohorquez are accused of complicity in the April 2002 failed coup against the Chavez government. The Dominican Embassy in Caracas has asked that the brothers be given safe passage to travel to the DR as soon as possible. The newspapers have made much of the fact that this comes exactly 16 years after disgraced Dominican President Salvador Jorge Blanco had his asylum petition rejected by the Venezuelan President of the time, Jaime Lusinchi, in May 1987.