ECUADOR: President Rafael Correa backs off initial offer of refuge to WikiLeaks' Julian Assange

Record ID: 783176

  • Title: ECUADOR: President Rafael Correa backs off initial offer of refuge to WikiLeaks' Julian Assange
  • Date: 1st December 2010
  • Summary: QUITO, ECUADOR (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
  • Embargoed: 16th December 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ecuador
  • Country: Ecuador
  • Topics: Communications,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4V9YIUH3JO22UK9H7ID8G6PMP
  • Story Text: Ecuador on Tuesday (November 30) backed off the idea of inviting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to visit the country as President Rafael Correa accused the whistleblower website of breaking the law by releasing U.S. documents.
    WikiLeaks has caused an international uproar by handing sensitive U.S. diplomatic cables over to the media.
    Assange, the 39-year-old Australian at the center of the scandal, was officially invited on Tuesday to work and seek residency in Ecuador, the Foreign Ministry said, an offer which was supported by National Assembly President Fernando Cordero.
    "The foreign minister is doing a very good thing by inviting him (Assange) and everyone who wants to choose Ecuador as a free country, democratic, transparent, to say things that are part of infamy," he said. "If politics isn't transparent, if politics is based on the things of a few that prejudice the majority, in these international pseudo-accords that 'you be quiet and I too shall be quiet,' (then) Ecuador isn't in line with it and I think what the foreign minister has done is very good."
    But Correa, a socialist first elected in 2006 on promises of battling what he calls the corrupt elite, quickly canceled the invitation, saying WikiLeaks "has committed an error by breaking the laws of the United States and leaking this type of information."
    Correa did not explicitly discuss the Foreign Ministry statement but said "no official offer was made."
    Ecuador is part of a leftist bloc of governments in South America, including Venezuela and Bolivia, that have been highly critical of U.S. policy in the region.
    More than 250,000 State Department cables were obtained by WikiLeaks and given to media groups, which began publishing stories on Sunday exposing the inner workings of U.S. diplomacy, including candid and embarrassing assessments of world leaders. WikiLeaks previously had released U.S. documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
    Australian citizen Assange's whereabouts are not known and he is believed to move from country to country. He had been seeking residency in Sweden but is now wanted in that country on sexual abuse charges that the former hacker says are part of a conspiracy against him.
    The U.S. government said on Monday it deeply regretted the release of any classified information and would tighten security to prevent leaks such as WikiLeaks' disclosure of a trove of State Department cables. The U.S. Justice Department said it was conducting a criminal investigation of the leaks.
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