RELATED: Morales cuts US down to size: ‘We don’t need your Embassy in Bolivia’
21st Century Wire says…
Following the emergency UNASUR summit in Bolivia on Thursday of this week, where South America’s leaders gathered to defend the abuse of Bolivian President Evo Morales at the hands of the United States, Venezuela has stepped forward to offer NSA fugitive Edward Snowden a home there, if he so chooses to take up their generous offer.
In addition to Venezuela, Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega and also said that he would offer Snowden refuge in the central American nation.
In defense of his neighbor Morales, Venezuela’s leader Nicolás Maduro stated this week that, “Violation of international law against Evo Morales is against all of us.”
Now President Maduro is prepared to put his money where his mouth is, citing “international humanitarian rights” as the banner under which Snowden’s case should fall under.
“I announce to the friendly governments of the world that we have decided to use international humanitarian rights to protect Snowden from the persecution that the world’s most powerful empire has unleashed against a young person who has told the truth,” Maduro said in a speech in Caracas.
http://youtu.be/-yrMaaWUo0M
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As yet, it is not know whether or not Snowden will take them up on the offer. Aeroflot flights from Moscow for Havana have departed on Friday and Saturday, and as yet, there is no conformation that Snowden was on board either flight.
His next move remains to be seen, and it will be a major on when it happens…
Venezuela says it will shelter Snowden
Emilia Diaz, Juan Forero and Will Englund
Washington Post
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Nicolás Maduro said Friday that his country is offering sanctuary to Edward Snowden, the young American intelligence contractor whose flight after disclosing a secret U.S. surveillance program triggered a worldwide manhunt by the Obama administration.
“I announce to the friendly governments of the world that we have decided to use international humanitarian rights to protect Snowden from the persecution that the world’s most powerful empire has unleashed against a young person who has told the truth,” Maduro said in a speech in Caracas.
Speaking at a military parade to commemorate Venezuela’s 202nd anniversary of independence, Maduro said he was offering asylum so that the National Security Agency leaker could live “in the fatherland of Bolivar and Chávez free of imperial North American persecution.” The president was referring to the 19th-century Latin American independence hero, Simon Bolivar, and Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, who ruled for 14 years until he died of cancer in March.
Maduro did not say how Snowden — marooned in the vast transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport since landing there from Hong Kong on June 23 — would get to Caracas. But Venezuela has close diplomatic ties to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and his government has often shown that it will go to extraordinary lengths to counter U.S. influence.
There has been no official reaction in Moscow at all. Saturday’s 2:05 p.m. Aeroflot flight for Havana has departed, apparently without Snowden aboard.
A member of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Alexander Babakov, told an agency called the Russian News Service, “Given that Snowden’s U.S. passport was revoked and that he has no particular alternative, the proposal [from Maduro], especially from the mouth of the head of state, is sure to be accepted.”
And Alexei Pushkov, head of the foreign affairs committee of Russia’s lower house of parliament, said in a tweet Saturday, “Sanctuary for Snowden in Venezuela would be the best decision. “ Caracas, he wrote, is already in an acute conflict with the United States. “It can’t get worse.” About Snowden, Pushkov wrote, “He can’t live at Sheremetyevo.”…
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READ MORE VENEZUELA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Venezuela Files
