Maduro vows to protect 'brave youth' Snowden
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro reiterated late Thursday his offer to grant asylum to fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, whom he praised as a "brave youth."
"If that young man needs humanitarian protection and believes that he can come to Venezuela," then Venezuela "is prepared to protect this brave youth in a humanitarian way and so that humanity can learn the truth," and his ordeal can end, Maduro said. US authorities want Snowden for leaking details of vast US surveillance programs.
The Kremlin says he has been in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport since he arrived on a flight from Hong Kong on Sunday, though he has not appeared in public and he failed to board a flight to Havana on Monday.
Ecuador appears to be Snowden's most likely destination, but President Rafael Correa said Thursday that the government had not yet considered his case. Ecuador's leftist government defiantly pulled out of a trade pact with the United States on Thursday, claiming it had become an instrument of "blackmail" as Quito considers Snowden's asylum bid.
The United States yesterday accused Hong Kong of acting in bad faith over fugitive Edward Snowden and warned of repercussions, after the city's government said US arrest paperwork was riddled with clerical errors.
US envoy Stephen Young also said China was guilty of "misbehaviour" over the former NSA contractor's abrupt departure from Hong Kong last Sunday, but said the territory itself would bear the brunt of Washington's displeasure.
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