The refugee club
Julian Assange was first. The founder of Wikileaks attracted Ecuador's attention when he hid in their embassy in London last year. Now Ecuador again got in the focus with another potential candidate for political asylum, although the latest developments suggest that the plan of smuggling him to Latin America could be more complicated than initially thought. In any case, this time former CIA and NSA employee Edward Snowden, the most looked-after traitor to dear America, became the new holy martyr of whistleblowing who got linked to the small country at the Equator.
Except, Snowden's task of reaching Ecuador is even more impossible than Assange's. He remains blocked with no documents in the departure zone of Sheremetyevo, one of Moscow's international airports, after he decided to leave Hong Kong where he spent a few days. The Ecuadorian government still hasn't decided if they'd eventually grant him asylum (and neither has Bolivia, btw - although, as of now Morales is in full conspiracy-theory mode once more), since he still hasn't managed to reach any of their diplomatic missions. So the whole procedure could take weeks, if it ever happens. And he'll have to stay at the airport lounge, eating hamburgers and drinking coke. LOL.
Ecuador has already angered America, Britain and Sweden with their decision to grant political asylum to Assange at their London embassy. He fears that if sent to Sweden, he'd be instantly extradited to the US where he'd be prosecuted for leaking 250 thousand diplomatic cables from many US embassies around the world, including reports on the US military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. No surprise that at the moment he's actively supporting Snowden and trying to assist him to get Ecuadorean protection, believing that Snowden has done a great thing by exposing the rampant US spying on the Internet (and their presumed allies, including Europe).
But why exactly Ecuador? After all, that country has a bilateral extradition agreement with the US (although some exceptions in cases of political asylum are possible). Well, the reason is that president Rafael Correa is among the very few who aren't bothered to upset Washington at first opportunity. He passes for one of the staunchest successors of Hugo Chavez, and just like him he never stops talking against the "American imperialism". When at an international conference Chavez called GWB "the Devil", Correa hurried to add that the statement was an insult to the Devil. That's why for him what's happening with Snowden and Assange is a nice opportunity to wag his finger at the evil imperialists.
There's a sense in Ecuador that for many years America has been preaching to the Latin American countries about democracy where it should've probably shut up. And, apart from using anti-American rhetoric, now Correa could claim that they're the ones actually defending human rights, not America. So it's mostly about scoring PR points.
What's more, Correa is member of the regional organization ALBA (the Bolivarian alternative to America), a loose group of leftist governments from Latin America who want to actively curb the US influence in "America's backyard", and in fact their main goal is to flip the bird to the evil imperialists at any opportunity. Chavez was the de facto leader of ALBA, and now Correa may be trying to take the leading position. But Ecuador is a small country that doesn't have the resources to be such a regional leader in the economic sense, so granting protection to guys like Assange and Snowden is Correa's way of taking a cheap score of "good points", and earn some influence and respect that would put him to the front among his Latin American comrades.
This way Correa could claim that he respects the freedom of speech at a moment when he's being accused of persecuting his political opponents, and censoring the media. In a similar way the Russia Today gave a tribune to Assange while the Russian mainstream media kept ignoring various opposition events within Russia itself. But Ecuador and Russia have yet one more thing in common. The new media law in Ecuador limits the number of private media and includes some articles that allow the president to attack and censor the more critical opinions. What's more, the media could be sued and fined for not reporting on news that the authorities consider to be important. According to civil rights organizations, some journalists who dare to criticize the government are subject to public condemnation and even lawsuit in some cases, and the judicial system has been marred by corruption, incompetence and political influence for years. Correa calls the journalists "contract killers in ink", and has ordered his ministers to stop giving interviews to the private media, which he calls "corrupt" - which is particularly ironic, given the state of the state media in his country.
At the same time, by the power of a decree that he signed in 2011, the government can oversee the activity of all international NGOs represented in Ecuador, and annul their right to perform activity in the country if they "interfere in domestic politics" or "attack public security and peace". So what we have here is the following paradox: being persecuted by the US for trying to expose the evil practices of the US government, Snowden and Assange are suddenly in a position where they're asking for protection from a country whose president is called the Sun King of the 21st century because of his firm grip on all institutions. If they had exposed some Ecuadorean secret for example, they'd have been in some serious trouble, that's for sure.
But right now this sad irony is just of secondary importance for Snowden. The US have arleady threatened that anyone who aids his escape would bear the consequences. They accused China, which now controls Hong Kong, and Russia, which currently hosts Snowden, that they had failed to extradite him while he was on their territory. All of this will certainly reflect negatively on the relations between the US and Ecuador, but realistically, Washington's options are not that many anyway.
The fact of the matter is, just like with Erdogan in Turkey, Correa is actually enjoying quite a lot of popular support in his country, so there's very little the US could do about it, even if they wanted to go "that" way, and actively work for toppling him (or at least encourage his toppling, as is the claim in Venezuela). Sure, America could impose trade sanctions on Ecuador, but that wouldn't be very much in their interest either, since Ecuador would then be in the role of the martyr victim, and the other Latin American countries would instantly leap to their support. So the US has to be extremely cautious here. And that's what's giving Correa more confidence at the moment: unlike the Cold War times, it's highly improbable that the US would suddenly go mad and decide to bomb Ecuador or something. (Although some would've loved that, I'm sure).
But the concern among the finance circles in Ecuador is that giving political asylum to Snowden could endanger the renewal of a trade agreement with the US which could potentially release 5000 Ecuadorean goods from tariffs. The authorities have responded that they unilaterally quit that customs relief in order to curb speculative practices on the domestic market, adding that the Latin American country is the only one to decide whether they'd take Snowden or not, and Ecuador's interests would be the only factor for that decision. What's more, Correa has said he intends to offer America a 23 million dollar annual donation for education programs on human rights. Wow, what a badass white-knight of freedom he really is, eh?
But even if Snowden gets political asylum and further somehow manages to reach Ecuador, that won't be the end of his woes. He won't be able to travel outside Ecuador, because he wouldn't have any documents. As for Assange, he's still stuck inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, without any prospects of leaving any time soon. So good luck with that. And, in case there's some sudden change of power in Ecuador, the new rulers could always decide to start cooperating with America. Wink-nudge-wink.
Not to mention that Ecuador is very far from being a Promised Land for refugees who are fleeing American and international justice.
Except, Snowden's task of reaching Ecuador is even more impossible than Assange's. He remains blocked with no documents in the departure zone of Sheremetyevo, one of Moscow's international airports, after he decided to leave Hong Kong where he spent a few days. The Ecuadorian government still hasn't decided if they'd eventually grant him asylum (and neither has Bolivia, btw - although, as of now Morales is in full conspiracy-theory mode once more), since he still hasn't managed to reach any of their diplomatic missions. So the whole procedure could take weeks, if it ever happens. And he'll have to stay at the airport lounge, eating hamburgers and drinking coke. LOL.
Ecuador has already angered America, Britain and Sweden with their decision to grant political asylum to Assange at their London embassy. He fears that if sent to Sweden, he'd be instantly extradited to the US where he'd be prosecuted for leaking 250 thousand diplomatic cables from many US embassies around the world, including reports on the US military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. No surprise that at the moment he's actively supporting Snowden and trying to assist him to get Ecuadorean protection, believing that Snowden has done a great thing by exposing the rampant US spying on the Internet (and their presumed allies, including Europe).
But why exactly Ecuador? After all, that country has a bilateral extradition agreement with the US (although some exceptions in cases of political asylum are possible). Well, the reason is that president Rafael Correa is among the very few who aren't bothered to upset Washington at first opportunity. He passes for one of the staunchest successors of Hugo Chavez, and just like him he never stops talking against the "American imperialism". When at an international conference Chavez called GWB "the Devil", Correa hurried to add that the statement was an insult to the Devil. That's why for him what's happening with Snowden and Assange is a nice opportunity to wag his finger at the evil imperialists.
There's a sense in Ecuador that for many years America has been preaching to the Latin American countries about democracy where it should've probably shut up. And, apart from using anti-American rhetoric, now Correa could claim that they're the ones actually defending human rights, not America. So it's mostly about scoring PR points.
What's more, Correa is member of the regional organization ALBA (the Bolivarian alternative to America), a loose group of leftist governments from Latin America who want to actively curb the US influence in "America's backyard", and in fact their main goal is to flip the bird to the evil imperialists at any opportunity. Chavez was the de facto leader of ALBA, and now Correa may be trying to take the leading position. But Ecuador is a small country that doesn't have the resources to be such a regional leader in the economic sense, so granting protection to guys like Assange and Snowden is Correa's way of taking a cheap score of "good points", and earn some influence and respect that would put him to the front among his Latin American comrades.
This way Correa could claim that he respects the freedom of speech at a moment when he's being accused of persecuting his political opponents, and censoring the media. In a similar way the Russia Today gave a tribune to Assange while the Russian mainstream media kept ignoring various opposition events within Russia itself. But Ecuador and Russia have yet one more thing in common. The new media law in Ecuador limits the number of private media and includes some articles that allow the president to attack and censor the more critical opinions. What's more, the media could be sued and fined for not reporting on news that the authorities consider to be important. According to civil rights organizations, some journalists who dare to criticize the government are subject to public condemnation and even lawsuit in some cases, and the judicial system has been marred by corruption, incompetence and political influence for years. Correa calls the journalists "contract killers in ink", and has ordered his ministers to stop giving interviews to the private media, which he calls "corrupt" - which is particularly ironic, given the state of the state media in his country.
At the same time, by the power of a decree that he signed in 2011, the government can oversee the activity of all international NGOs represented in Ecuador, and annul their right to perform activity in the country if they "interfere in domestic politics" or "attack public security and peace". So what we have here is the following paradox: being persecuted by the US for trying to expose the evil practices of the US government, Snowden and Assange are suddenly in a position where they're asking for protection from a country whose president is called the Sun King of the 21st century because of his firm grip on all institutions. If they had exposed some Ecuadorean secret for example, they'd have been in some serious trouble, that's for sure.
But right now this sad irony is just of secondary importance for Snowden. The US have arleady threatened that anyone who aids his escape would bear the consequences. They accused China, which now controls Hong Kong, and Russia, which currently hosts Snowden, that they had failed to extradite him while he was on their territory. All of this will certainly reflect negatively on the relations between the US and Ecuador, but realistically, Washington's options are not that many anyway.
The fact of the matter is, just like with Erdogan in Turkey, Correa is actually enjoying quite a lot of popular support in his country, so there's very little the US could do about it, even if they wanted to go "that" way, and actively work for toppling him (or at least encourage his toppling, as is the claim in Venezuela). Sure, America could impose trade sanctions on Ecuador, but that wouldn't be very much in their interest either, since Ecuador would then be in the role of the martyr victim, and the other Latin American countries would instantly leap to their support. So the US has to be extremely cautious here. And that's what's giving Correa more confidence at the moment: unlike the Cold War times, it's highly improbable that the US would suddenly go mad and decide to bomb Ecuador or something. (Although some would've loved that, I'm sure).
But the concern among the finance circles in Ecuador is that giving political asylum to Snowden could endanger the renewal of a trade agreement with the US which could potentially release 5000 Ecuadorean goods from tariffs. The authorities have responded that they unilaterally quit that customs relief in order to curb speculative practices on the domestic market, adding that the Latin American country is the only one to decide whether they'd take Snowden or not, and Ecuador's interests would be the only factor for that decision. What's more, Correa has said he intends to offer America a 23 million dollar annual donation for education programs on human rights. Wow, what a badass white-knight of freedom he really is, eh?
But even if Snowden gets political asylum and further somehow manages to reach Ecuador, that won't be the end of his woes. He won't be able to travel outside Ecuador, because he wouldn't have any documents. As for Assange, he's still stuck inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, without any prospects of leaving any time soon. So good luck with that. And, in case there's some sudden change of power in Ecuador, the new rulers could always decide to start cooperating with America. Wink-nudge-wink.
Not to mention that Ecuador is very far from being a Promised Land for refugees who are fleeing American and international justice.