by Lady Michelle-Jennifer Santos, Chief Visionary Founder & Owner
July 6, 2013 (TSR) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Bolivian President Evo Morales announced they will extend asylum and protection for Edward Snowden.
Mr Snowden is wanted by American authorities for leaking information about classified US surveillance programs and is believed to be hiding in the transit area of a Russian airport.
“As Head of State and Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, I have decided to offer the young American Humanitarian Asylum Edward Snowden, so that in the homeland of Bolivar and Chavez can come to live”, Maduro declared from Paseo Los Próceres de Caracas, before the civic-military parade by the 202 years of the signing of the Act of Independence of Venezuela, from July 5, 1811.
“Today, Independence Day, fellow of the National Armed Forces, know that to be independent you have to feel, and to exercise independence and sovereignty. No speeches are worth if not exercised hard and with an attitude of National Power, ” says the head of state.
“Attention to the friendly governments in the world, we have decided to offer Snowden by international humanitarian law, to protect this young man from the persecution that has been unleashed by the most powerful empire in the world against him when all he has done is to say the TRUTH. ”
“We’ve broadly asked for Mr. Snowden to be returned from any country where he may be, where he may land, where he may transit,” U.S. State Department spokesman Jen Psaki, said earlier.
However, Maduro’s defies the U.S. request with stern decisive words. Upon the announcement, Maduro presents his case regarding who really is the one violating international laws, making it clear Snowden will never get extradited, but will be warmly welcomed by the Bolivarian Republic.
“A young man who has decided with rebelliously exposed truths of U.S. espionage against the world? Or a government, imperialist power elites spying the whole world? ” says the Venezuelan president as he deliberates stark contrast of who has the greater ‘sin’.
“Who is the rapist in the world? A 29-year war plans denouncing the U.S. government or that throwing bombs and terrorist weapon Syrian opposition against the people and against the legitimate President Bashar Al-Assad? Who is the terrorist, who is the global criminal?”, Maduro said.
Maduro also pointed out the hypocrisy of the USA towards Venezuela by harboring a real terrorist versus Snowden whose motive was to expose U.S. crime and violation of people’s sovereign right to privacy around the world.
“Who is the terrorist, a government like ours that seeks to serve the young Snowden with a humanitarian act by giving him asylum against persecution of the American empire against him, or the U.S. government that protects and given political asylum to Luis Posada Carriles, a confessed murderer and convicted terrorist, which is requested by Venezuela to be extradited for the bombing of a Cubana airliner in 1976? “.
“Today, Independence Day, let us feel happy to have a country that acts sovereign and independent.”
Almost simultaneously, Nicaragua also gives asylum to Snowden on July 5.
“We are open, friendly and asylum law is clear that if circumstances permit us, we would gladly receive Snowden and give asylum here in Nicaragua,” says President Daniel Ortega on Friday.
During his speech at a ceremony for the 34th anniversary of the withdrawal to Masaya, Nicaragua President added, “You know what the position of Nicaragua in this respect, we are an open, respectful of the right of asylum.”
He said the Nicaraguan embassy in Moscow received Snowden’s application for asylum and that it is studying the request.
“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,” Ortega said.
Nicaragua was on the initial list of 21 countries which sought asylum the young American, former CIA agent, Edward Snowden, who is pursued by the U.S. government, after revealing details of the intelligence of that country to its own citizens and other nations the world.
Ortega confirmed that Snowden had sent a letter to the Embassy of Nicaragua in Moscow, in which he asked formally asylum.
In less than 12 hours, the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, joined its allies in offering to grant Snowden asylum today.
Morales, still nursing his infringed honor as a head of a sovereign state, said the decision is a “fair protest” by the incident he suffered while returning from Russia.
“I want to tell … the Europeans and Americans that last night I was thinking that as a fair protest, I want to say that now in fact we are going to give asylum to that American who is being persecuted by his fellow Americans,” he proclaimed.
“They accused me that I brought to this former CIA agent claiming they discovered and reported to us by the illegally controlled governments of the United States,” he said.
Declaring that Bolivia has “no fear” of the US and its European allies, Morales said that he would be willing to give asylum to Snowden, if he asked.
“If Snowden asks us legally, we will give asylum to let the world know we are not controlled by the U.S. government (…) We have no fear,” said Morales at a public event in Chipaya, a rural area of the Andean department of Oruro.
“I know the whole world has been persecuted politically (…) for exposing U.S. spying. For humane reasons, we give asylum and from the knowledge of the government of the United States and some European countries, ” added the president.
The three offers for political asylum came within 36 hours after an emergency UNASUR meeting which was held Thursday in Cochabamba, Bolivia following an incident in which Bolivian president Evo Morales was denied entry into French airspace.
Morales’ plane was forced out of European airspace and to make an unexpected landing in Austria after a US diplomat lied about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden being onboard, local media reported.
The plane had departed from Moscow on July 2, but was not allowed to fly over France, Spain, Portugal or Italy after those governments were told the plane was carrying Snowden aboard.
The Bolivian presidential plane was also low on fuel.
When the plane landed in Vienna to refuel, US Ambassador to Austria William Eacho phoned officials from the Austrian Foreign Ministry, the Austrian daily newspaper Die Presse reported.
Eacho “claimed with great certainty that Edward Snowden was onboard” and referenced a “diplomatic note requesting Snowden’s extradition.”
Portugal and France denied to refuel the Bolivian president’s plane, which put his life at risk, in addition to violating international treaties based on a rumor started by the USA.
Morales’ jet was forced into landing in Vienna on Wednesday. Austrian authorities searched Morales’ plane for Edward Snowden, but found no stowaways on board, Austria’s deputy chancellor has said.
David Choquehuanca, the Bolivian Foreign Minister, refuted the idea Snowden was on the plane, saying “we don’t know who invented this lie, but we want to denounce to the international community this injustice with the plane of President Evo Morales.”
Enraged, Morales told press at the airport that he was not a “criminal” and reminded EU countries that “we are no longer in the colonial period.” Moreover, he called on the countries that had closed their airspace to him to account for themselves.
“The governments of France, Spain and Portugal must explain to the world the reasons behind this delay,” said Morales, adding that these actions were indicative of the “repressive policies” of some EU countries. Morales mocked the fact some governments believed Snowden could be on board, saying “this young man isn’t a suitcase that I can take with me to Bolivia.”
Several Latin American leaders rallied behind Bolivia denouncing the detention of Morales’ plane. President of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, decried the situation as “madness” on her Twitter account “The head of state and his plane have total immunity. This level of impunity is unprecedented,” tweeted Kirchner.
Cuba also condemned Morales’ detention as an “unacceptable and unjustifiable act that offends Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Meanwhile, Rafael Correa, the Ecuadorian president, has called on other South American leaders to “take action.”
“Decisive hours for UNASUR (Union of South American Nations)! Either we graduated from the colonies, or we claim our independence, sovereignty and dignity. We are all Bolivia!” Correa proclaimed via Twitter.
As a result, UNASUR issued the Cochabamba Declaration on July 4 as a united front for the infringed president. Regional blocs ALBA and MERCOSUR also gave their maximum solidarity of support to Bolivian President Evo Morales, his honor and his country’s sovereignty.
Morales now threatens to close the US embassy in Bolivian soil and their embassy in the US saying that they don’t need the relationship. He also proclaimed that Bolivia does not need US tool World Bank and IMF.
As response to the threat, the US embassy in Bolivia did not celebrate the American Independence Day.
There was no immediate reaction from the Obama administration to the asylum offers – however, the Wall Street Journal quoted a senior US official as saying that President Maduro’s offer appeared to be nothing more than a symbolic gesture. “It’s not clear as a practical matter that will have any effect, because Snowden would still have to get to Venezuelan territory,” the unnamed official told the paper.
Beware: U.S. may play dirty, as usual
The silence by Bush/Obama Orwellian security state operation is expected and has to tread very carefully.
Let’s get into the US game strategy.
Considering how USA thinks, they are now trying to figure out how to a) keep Edward Snowden holed up in Russia, or b) flush him out in a direction where they can capture him – and at this point, it’s very clear that whatever that move will be, legally or illegally, makes no difference whatsoever.
If they fail to come up with a plan that is fair and clean, their choices get even uglier:
- Invade everything south of the Panama Canal
- Authorize his special secret assassin team, JSoc, and send in Seal Team 6 on a Whack or Extract mission
- Deal with the humiliation of being one-upped by a bunch of feisty Third World cats.
If the Obama administration has no remorse about assassinating two U.S. citizens in 2011, Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old 
Denver-born son Abdulrahman, which Jeremy Scahill revealed in his book, “Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield,” the second is a big possibility.
Of all these three Latin American countries that extend Snowden asylum, it would either be Nicaragua or Bolivia that will be targeted for destabilization. USA cannot do it to Venezuela as the world has witnessed, when they put their financial and PR weight behind their lackey, Henrique Capriles. Furthermore, Russia and China will not be happy with the Venezuelans, UNASUR, ALBA and MERCOSUR.
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American isthmus, bordering Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. But of all the three, it has the least population, circa 6 million. The Pacific Ocean lies to the west, and the Caribbean Sea to the east, which makes it accessible by JSoc.
Nicaragua is rich in natural resources, most of which have not been exploited on a large scale because of lack of financing. Mineral resources include known deposits of gold, silver, zinc, copper, iron ore, lead, and gypsum. Of these minerals, only gold has been mined intensively.
Bolivia is a landlocked country located in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil to the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina to the south, Chile to the southwest, and Peru to the west, which gives it better protection from infiltration. They have expelled USAID. Now, they threatened to remove the US embassy, which has become harbor for CIA agents around the world.
Russia is proof of that. They pushed for the foreign agents NGO bill, and expelled USAID. Not too long ago, they also expelled a US diplomat, Ryan Fogle, who tried to recruit potential agents to destabilize the country from within, and declared him persona non grata. To add salt to the humiliating incompetence of American intelligence, Russia also went a step further and exposed CIA’s Moscow station chief, Stephen Holmes – a complete breach of protocol between countries.
The struggle for Bolivian natural resources and the US defense of its commercial interests has not ceased since the zenith period of the banana republics supported by the US. Bolivia is one of the poorest country in South America but has two key aces that makes Wall Street drool: It possesses the second largest natural gas reserves in South America after Venezuela and is very wealthy in minerals, especially tin and lithium.
Bolivia has 5.4 million cubic tonnes of lithium which represents 50%–70% of world reserves. The light metal is used to make high-capacity batteries used in electric cars and such. The spinoff effect of lithium mining could cause Bolivia to become the “Saudi Arabia of the Green World.” However, to mine for it would involve disturbing the country’s salt flats (called Salar de Uyuni), an important natural feature which boosts tourism in the region. The government does not want to destroy this unique natural landscape to meet the rising world demand for lithium which poses a dilemma to Corporatists.
There has also been spying and assassination attempts on the life of President Evo Morales.
My advice to Obama: Suck it, own it up and do the Right thing to Americans and the world
The world is waking up to American imperialism, and not many, as Obama can see, will bow down to whatever Washington demands. America is already at the tipping point and very unpopular around the world. If the U.S. president makes the wrong choices, he is risking of losing and burning bridges with Latin America.
Therefore, I humbly advise to do the following, Mr. President:
- Re-read the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Human Rights as basic knowledge in case you have forgotten everything that Harvard University taught you (there’s probably a copy lying around somewhere in the White House, and if not you can Google it, Mr. President. You do work with their servers, I’m sure they would supply whatever you ask)
- Admit, confess and sincerely apologize that “mistakes were made,” (it helps when you really mean it); and
- Position yourself at the forefront of a campaign to eradicate the Bush Orwellian security state that you have so far done nothing but expand.
- For added bonus, close down Guantanamo. It’s been 150 days now that the inmates are on hunger strike. Force-feeding them means you are not listening at all. Newsflash: They are on hunger strike because they want to be HEARD. They want to either be tried or release. They are humans, not your pets.
They said you attract more flies with honey. Perhaps, if Obama focuses on the welfare of the Americans, fraternal relations with all nations around the world, not bow down to his Masters all the time and humble himself once in a while, the world might help him and rally behind him the way Latin American countries unite with fervor, in getting America out of its current rut and problems.
WE ARE ONE, you know. There’s only one planet. Bolivia gets that.
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This report is part of the Edward Snowden, the Whistleblower Saga series.
Snowden Saga I: Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia grants asylum after Norway chance foiled
Snowden Saga II: Snowden’s Norway re-evaluation foiled by Justice Minister
Snowden Saga III: Forthcoming
Snowden Saga IV: Forthcoming
Snowden Saga V: Russia grants official pass for Snowden to enter Moscow
Snowden Saga VI:
Snowden Saga VII:
