Unlike US Asylees, Snowden didn’t Blow anything Up, just said ‘This is not Right’ [View all]

[Catherina]

Venezuela’s Maduro: Unlike US Asylees, Snowden didn’t Blow anything Up, just said ‘This is not Right’

Posted on 07/06/2013 by Juan Cole

Globovision reports that President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela on Friday offered asylum to US leaker Edward Snowden, in order, he said, to protect him from “imperial North American persecution,” describing the US government as among the “most oppressive in the world.” He said he hoped Snowden would be able to live “quietly in the free country of Bolívar and Chávez.”

Maduro made the statement on Venezuela’s Independence Day, commemorating that country’s July 5, 1811 declaration of independence. A week and a half ago, Maduro had complained that the US routinely grants asylum to right wing Venezuelans who were guilty of terrorism and killings, and that it was a small thing to give asylum to someone who merely blew the whistle on government surveillance. Maduro pointed to the US allowing Luis Posada Carriles to live freely in Miami, even though he blew up a plane with 73 persons aboard and thereby nearly killed prominent American journalist Stephen Kinzer. It is thought that the US government protects Posada Cariles because he had worked for the CIA and could reveal many unsavory secrets if he were extradited abroad.

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“Caracas Radio Nacional de Venezuela Online on 26 June reports that President Maduro criticized that the US Government demands that other governments deny political asylum to former national security expert Edward Snowden despite protecting terrorists such as Luis Posada Carriles.

He also rejected that “the United States has granted political asylum to several former Venezuelan military officers who, led by fascist groups, set off bombs at the Colombian Embassy and the Spanish Consulate and who live in Miami with the protection of the US Government.

The United States granted political asylum to an unsavory character named Eligio Cedeno, who launders drug money and was tried in Venezuela on this charge. He has also received protection.”

He condemned that the US Government is demanding Snowden’s arrest and extradition. He added: “This 29-year-old man has not set off bombs, murdered anyone or stolen anything. All he did was look at himself in the mirror one day and say to himself: ‘What I am doing to the world? This is not right’ He rebelled. He (Snowden) belongs to a great rebellion of US youths that is under way, the rebellion of consciences, (and) the rebellion of principles.”

http://www.juancole.com/2013/07/venezuelas-snowden-anything.html