Nicaragua would consider giving asylum to embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi if he ask for it, an aide to the Central American country's president told a local TV channel on Wednesday.
Asked whether Nicaragua would offer Gaddafi asylum, Bayardo Arce, President Daniel Ortega's adviser for economic affairs said: 'If someone were to request asylum we would have to give a positive answer because [Nicaraguan] people were granted asylum when people were being murdered by the Somoza dictatorship."
"I do not know how Gaddafi could get here from Libya, because we do not have an embassy in Libya," Arce told Channel 63 television.
Local media have speculated Gaddafi might consider exile in Nicaragua because president Ortega has been a vocal supporter of the Libyan leader, recently calling him a 'brother' and 'friend.'
On Wednesday, rebels ransacked Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya bastion in Tripoli, seizing weapons and smashing symbols of his government.
Colonel Gaddafi has reportedly made a defiant speech on Libyan radio, just hours after his compound in Tripoli came under the attack.
His whereabouts remain unknown, but according to a pro-Gaddafi television channel, the 69-year-old promised "martyrdom or victory" in his fight against the rebels and NATO forces.
Opposition supporters continue celebrations in Tripoli's central square, although there are reports of sporadic resistance from pro-Gaddafi fighters in parts of the capital.
