The Snowden Affair, as seen from Venezuela and Ecuador

So far, Venezuela has not received any asylum request from Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor turned whistleblower who revealed that the intelligence agency is spying on pretty well everyone who’s got a telephone and/or internet access. But, says President Maduro, if Venezuela were to receive such a request, the response would be favorable:

Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro made reference to the Snowden case in remarks made during a press conference along with his Haitian counterpart, Michel Martelly.

“Denunciations of espionage on the part of intelligence agencies in the United States should serve to change the world,” Maduro said.

What this young man did has been for the good of humanity. No one in the world should be spied on, said Maduro. “Snowden surprised the world in divulging denunciations over the violation of civil liberties in the United States,” he added, and asked: “What would happen if it were found out that Venezuela, a humble country, is spying on the entire world? We’d then have all the organisms, the [UN] Security Council, coming down on Venezuela.”

The young people of the US are with Snowden, who deserves all the humanitarian aid that can be offered. He has not sought asylum in Venezuela, but we are abreast of and watching his situation, said Maduro.

The Venezuelan president also said that in the United States, there are political asylum seekers who placed bombs in the Colombian and Spanish diplomatic installations in Venezuela, among them Luis Posada Carriles, a convicted and confessed killer, who caused the deaths of more than 70 young athletes on a Cubana de Aviación flight that departed from Caracas.

“Who deserves asylum: those who contribute to the world, or those who place bombs?” asked the president, referring to the crime in Barbados.

Translation mine.

Isn’t it ironic (and extremely interesting) that Luis Posada Carriles, a convicted terrorist, is walking free in the US even though he arrived there illegally and, by rights, should be either in jail there, or else extradited to Venezuela or Cuba for his crimes?

Meanwhile, several fugitives from Ecuador are also oozing around in Gringolandia, quite unpunished by US justice, even though they are wanted for crimes against humanity back home:

The ex-president of Ecuador, Jamil Mahuad; the bankers who caused the crisis of 1990, Roberto and William Isaías; and the ex-director of Ecuadorian army intelligence and US agent in Ecuador, Mario Pazmiño, are some of the Ecuadorians with criminal records whom the White House has granted refuge in recent years.

This information was revealed by Canadian journalist Jean-Guy Allard. In his article, Allard criticizes the morality of the US government, which expressed opposition to Edward Snowden receiving asylum in Ecuador while it “receives without the least scruple, and gives protection to, delinquents of Ecuadorian nationality.”

“The political and economic decisions taken by the Mahuad government generated, in addition to victims of savage repression, the flight of two million Ecuadorians into the exterior. Ecuadorian justice had already put out an arrest warrant for Mahuad in late 2011, in order that the embezzling ex-leader could be located and captured. A short time later, under US pressure, Interpol rejected Quito’s petition, which provoked protests in Ecuador, including from President Rafael Correa himself,” wrote Allard.

A few short weeks ago, a Florida judge, John Thornton, ruled in favor of the banker brothers, Roberto and William Isaías Dassum, owners of the failed Filanbanco corporation.

“The two delinquent financiers owed no less than $264 million to the people of Ecuador,” Allard added. The judge decided that the human rights of the two had been injured.

“This is a reality. There was an investigation, and they have a great many properties and investments in the United States, mainly in Miami, as they themselves stated; they now own a subsidiary of the CNN chain in Orlando, and in Tampa; they are opening a Latino channel in Miami; they have oil investments; they own a network of private schools; finally, they inaugurated intelligent buildings such as those in Coral Way,” said Ecuadorian lawyer Carlos Bravo on June 13, to the Andes news agency.

The Isaías brothers live in Cocoplum, the most exclusive neighborhood in Coral Gables, Florida, under the protection of the US government.

“Mario Raúl Pazmiño, ex-chief of Ecuadorian military intelligence, was expelled from the army for his collaboration with the CIA and his numerous ‘leaks’ of secret information to his US handlers, and for interfering with an operation against drug traffickers,” Allard continues.

“For years, Pazmiño, an ultra-right-wing militant, dedicated himself, along with several others of his ilk, to the so-called White Legion, a clandestine fascist group dedicated to attacking leftists. With help from the North,” Allard writes. “A traitor of the first order, Pazmiño informed his CIA chiefs during the bombardment of March 1, 2008, of a FARC camp in Angostura, in which 26 persons died, among them Raúl Reyes.”

“Granted asylum in the United States, Pazmiño never for a single instant stopped conspiring against the government of President Rafael Correa. Seven days before the attempted coup d’état in Ecuador, Pazmiño appeared as one of the leaders of a conspiratorial meeting in Miami, along with his parter, the torturer Gustavo Lemus. He was surrounded at the time by various Cuban counter-revolutionaries identified with terrorism, among them Carlos Alberto Montaner,” writes Allard.

Lemus, also in the US under CIA protection, is wanted in Ecuador for torture and accused of having covered up the murder of two teenagers when he was chief of the torturers in the Social Christian government of León Febres Cordero (1984-1988).

Again, translation mine.

So, it appears that there is a consistent pattern of stinking hypocrisy in the US as to who is a terrorist and who is a spy, and who is not. Edward Snowden ruined no economies, is not a torturer or an airplane bomber, killed no one and endangered no one’s life or security…yet he is wanted for “espionage” (on whose behalf, one wonders?) Meanwhile, all the slimiest scum of Latin America, which has a funny way of washing up on Florida’s shores, is living the sweet life there under federal protection…in spite of causing financial crises, perpetrating murder, torture, coups, and mayhem.

It just doesn’t get any further through the Looking Glass than that.