Venezuela offers Snowden asylum

VENEZUELA’s President Nicolas Maduro offered asylum to former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden on Friday in defiance of Washington, which is demanding his arrest for divulging details of secret US spy programmes.

Snowden, 30, is believed to be holed up in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport. He has been trying to find a country that will take him since he landed from Hong Kong on June 23.

“In the name of America’s dignity . . . I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to Edward Snowden,” Maduro told a military parade marking Venezuela’s independence day.

“He is a young man who has told the truth — in the spirit of rebellion — about the United States spying on the whole world.”

Russia has kept the former National Security Agency contractor at arm’s length, saying the transit area where passengers stay between flights is neutral territory and he will be on Russian soil only if he goes through passport control.

It was not immediately clear how Snowden would reach Venezuela if he accepted. There are no direct commercial flights between Moscow and Caracas. The usual route involves changing planes in Havana, Cuba. It is not clear if the Cuban authorities would let him transit.

Given the dramatic grounding in Vienna of the Bolivian president’s aeroplane this week over suspicions that Snowden was on board, using European airspace could prove problematic.

Russia has shown signs of growing impatience over Snowden’s stay in Moscow. Its deputy foreign minister said on Thursday that Snowden needed to choose a place to go.

Moscow has made it clear that the longer he stays, the greater the risk of the diplomatic standoff over his fate causing lasting damage to relations with Washington.

The White House declined to comment on Venezuela’s offer.

Raising the possibility of at least one other option, Nicaragua said it had received an asylum request from Snow-

Russia has shown signs of growing impatience

den and could agree to it “if circumstances permit”.

WikiLeaks said on Friday that Snowden had asked six more nations for asylum, bringing to about 20 the number he has appealed to for protection from US espionage charges.

WikiLeaks said on Twitter it would not reveal which six new countries Snowden had applied to, owing to “attempted US interference”.

Maduro said the details Snowden had revealed of US spy programmes had exposed the nefarious schemes of the US “empire”.

“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?” he asked, to cheers from ranks of military officers at the parade.

“Who is the terrorist? Who is the global delinquent?”

Since narrowly winning a presidential election in April that followed the death of his mentor, Hugo Chavez, from cancer, Maduro has often lambasted the US.

But the former bus driver and union leader has at times also struck a much more concilia- tory note, saying he is ready for better relations with Washington based on mutual respect.

Already one of Snowden’s most vocal supporters on the world stage, Maduro has sharpened his rhetoric in recent days.

It peaked after Bolivia said that France, Portugal, Italy and Spain banned an aeroplane carrying its president, Evo Morales, from using their airspace because of suspicions that Snowden was aboard.

“The European people have seen the cowardice and the weakness of their governments, which now look like colonies of the United States,” the Venezuelan president said.

A bid by Snowden for Icelandic citizenship hit an impasse on Friday when the country’s parliament voted not to debate the issue before its summer recess. —