New chance for Quito to defy the US
Ecuador is again at the center of an international diplomatic saga over US data secrecy that will thrust the country's President Rafael Correa into the limelight and stir fresh controversy with Washington.
The government of the South American nation said on Sunday that fugitive former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has asked it for asylum.
Anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, whose founder Julian Assange has spent a year taking refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London, said Snowden is bound for Quito from Moscow. He flew to the Russian capital from Hong Kong on Sunday.
Yolanda Acosta, 35, a small-business owner in Quito, Ecuador's capital, said, "They should give him (Snowden) political asylum because we all have the right to freedom and no country or government such as the United States can override that."
If Correa's administration does give sanctuary to Snowden, it will put a new strain on relations with the United States, which had appeared to be improving in recent weeks despite strong disagreement over the year-old Assange case.
Alberto Acosta, a former energy minister in Correa's government, said, "If they gave asylum to Assange, in very complicated conditions, they have to give it to Snowden."
Correa, 50, a vocal member of an alliance of left-wing Latin American presidents who was a close friend of Venezuela's late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, is riding high after winning re-election in February with about 57 percent of the vote.
He has won broad support from Ecuador's low-income majority thanks to heavy spending on welfare, health, education and infrastructure projects. But the US-trained economist has irked investors with his anti-capitalist rhetoric.
Correa pushed through a new constitution that gave him more power, and this month passed a controversial law creating a state watchdog to regulate media content. Critics called the move a blow to free speech, while supporters say it enshrines principles of balance.
Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank focused on US relations with Latin America, said another chance to defy Washington again was probably irresistible for Ecuador's president.
"Of all the Latin American countries, Correa is the one who's most willing to stand up to the United States. He'll couch it in terms of principle but I think this is all about defying the US."
Reuters
(China Daily 06/25/2013 page12)
