Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua Offer Edward Snowden Amnesty
Bolivia has joined Venezuela and Nicaragua in extending an offer of amnesty to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Snowden seems to be stuck in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, a legally tenuous position that leaves him at the mercy of Russian authorities. He has applied for asylum in at least 21 countries, though many have turned him down. Only recently have leftist Latin American governments stepped up to offer him refuge.
"In the name of America's dignity, I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to Edward Snowden," Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Friday. "He has told the truth, in the spirit of rebellion, about the US spying on the whole world. Who is the guilty one? A young man who denounces war plans, or the US government which launches bombs and arms the terrorist Syrian opposition against the people and legitimate president Bashar al-Assad? Who is the terrorist? Who is the global delinquent?" Maduro said, in his typically bombastic style.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega also faulted the United States, not Snowden, for the current situation. We have the sovereign right to help a person who felt remorse after finding out how the United States was using technology to spy on the whole world, and especially its European allies," he said.
Bolivia followed suit on Saturday, likely spurred to action by embarrassment at the treatement of President Evo Morales at the behest of American authorities. The plane carrying Morales was barred from French airspace earlier this week, amis fears that Snowden could be hiding aboard. The plane was forced to land and was searched, a grave indignity for a head of state.
The American authorities continue to search for a diplomatic means to return Snowden to the United States, where he likely faces a legal limbo and military courts, much like alleged Wikileaks source Bradley Manning. The best case scenario for Snowden is amnesty, much like the living situation of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living in the Ecudorian embassy in London for a year.
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