Granting Snowden Asylum Could Help and Hurt Ecuador’s Leader

Giving asylum to Edward Snowden, the former US National Security Agency systems administrator who has exposed broad surveillance programs, might have mixed results for Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. While assisting Snowden would help boost Correa’s image as a human-rights advocate in the international arena, Ecuador may have to sacrifice its trade preferences to enter the US market – set to be renewed on June 30. In the political arena, critics point out that giving asylum to Snowden is double-speak at best, since under Ecuador’s new media law, he could face jail time of up to 10 years for the same actions. Correa has been criticized for trying to revamp the Ecuadorian media in a way designed to set up the government as the arbiter of acceptable information. Ecuador and the US have an extradition treaty, but it has not always been applied, leading Ecuadorean officials to point out that giving asylum to Snowden should not affect bilateral relations between the two countries. – YaleGlobal