Venezuela said Friday that he would offer asylum to the fugitive intelligence contractor Edward J. Snowden, who has been stranded in a Moscow airport searching for a safe haven. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/06/world/snowden.html?ref=world “I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young American Edward Snowden” President Nicolás Maduro said during a televised appearance at a military parade marking Venezuela’s independence day. “to protect this young man from the persecution unleashed by the world’s most powerful empire.”
“It is clear that if the circumstances permit we will take in Mr. Snowden with pleasure and give him asylum in Nicaragua,” Daniel Ortega, the president of Nicaragua, said.
The offers from Venezuela and Nicaragua are linked to outrage in Latin America over the treatment last week of President Evo Morales of Bolivia, whose plane was denied permission to fly over several European countries because of what Bolivian officials said were unfounded suspicions that Mr. Snowden was aboard.
Supporters of Mr. Snowden clearly blame the refusals on pressure from the United States, and, as a result, WikiLeaks said it would not reveal the latest countries in which he is seeking shelter. “They will not be named at this time due to attempted US interference,”
