PORTOVIEJO, Ecuador (AP) -- Edward
Snowden is "under the care of the Russian authorities" and
can't leave Moscow's international airport without their
consent, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa told The
Associated Press Sunday in an interview telegraphing the
slim and diminishing possibility that the National Security
Agency leaker will end up in Ecuador.
Correa portrayed Russia as entirely
the master of Snowden's fate and said Ecuador is still
awaiting an asylum request from Snowden before deciding its
next moves.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has
distanced himself from the case since Snowden arrived in
Moscow last week, insisting the 30-year-old former NSA
contractor remains in the transit zone of the capital's
Sheremetyevo Airport and that as long as he has not legally
entered Russia, he is out of the Kremlin's control.
At the same time, the Kremlin said
Sunday that it will take public opinion and the views of
human rights activists into account when considering
Snowden's case, a move that could lay the groundwork for him
to seek asylum in Russia.
"This is the decision of Russian
authorities," Correa told the AP during a visit to this
Pacific coast city. "He doesn't have a passport. I don't
know the Russian laws, I don't know if he can leave the
airport, but I understand that he can't. At this moment he's
under the care of the Russian authorities. If he arrives at
an Ecuadorean Embassy we'll analyze his request for asylum."
Last week, several members of Russia's
Presidential Council for Human Rights spoke out in support
of Snowden, saying he deserved to receive political asylum
in the country of his choice and should not be handed over
to the United States. And a handful of protesters picketed
outside the Moscow airport in what appeared to be an
orchestrated demonstration on Friday, holding signs reading
"Edward, Russia is your second motherland" and "Russia is
behind Snowden."
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told
Ekho Moskvy radio that while Snowden is not Russia's
concern, the Kremlin is aware of the viewpoints of Russian
experts and representatives of human rights organizations.
"Public opinion on the subject is very
rich," Peskov said in the radio interview. "We are aware of
this and are taking it into account."
Correa said he had no idea Snowden's
intended destination was Ecuador when he fled Hong Kong for
Russia last week. He said the Ecuadorean consul in London
committed "a serious error" by not consulting officials in
Ecuador's capital when the consul issued a letter of safe
passage for Snowden. He said the consul would be punished,
although he didn't specify how.
Analysts familiar with the workings of
the Ecuadorean government said Correa's claims that the
decision was entirely Russia's appeared to be at least
partly disingenuous. They said they believed Correa's
administration at first intended to host Snowden, then
started back-tracking this week when the possible
consequences became clearer.
"I think the government started to
realize the dimensions of what it was getting itself into,
how it was managing things and the consequences that this
could bring," said Santiago Basabe, an analyst and professor
of political sciences at the Latin American School of Social
Sciences in the Ecuadorean capital, Quito. "So it started
pulling back, and they'll never tell us why, but I think the
alarm bells started to go off from people very close to the
government, maybe Ecuador's ambassador in Washington warned
them about the consequences of asylum for Snowden."
Correa said Snowden must assume
responsibility if he broke U.S. laws, but added the broader
legitimacy of Snowden's action must be taken into
consideration. He said Ecuador would still consider an
asylum request but only if Snowden is able to make it to
Ecuador or an Ecuadorean Embassy to apply.
The U.S. is seeking the former NSA
contractor's extradition for leaking secret documents that,
among other things, detail U.S. surveillance of
international online activity. On Sunday, German magazine
Der Spiegel reported that classified documents taken by
Snowden also revealed U.S. spies had allegedly bugged
European Union offices.
Correa never entirely closed the door
to Snowden, whom he said had drawn vital attention to the
U.S. eavesdropping program and potential violations of human
rights. But Correa appeared to be sending the message that
it is unlikely Snowden will ever end up in Ecuador. He
repeatedly emphasized the importance of the U.S. legal
process and praised Vice President Joe Biden for what he
described as a courteous and appreciated half-hour call
about the Snowden case on Friday.
He similarly declined to reject an
important set of U.S. trade benefits for Ecuadorean exports,
again a contrast with his government's unilateral
renunciation of a separate set of tariff benefits earlier in
the week.
"If he really could have broken North
American laws, I am very respectful of other countries and
their laws and I believe that someone who breaks the law
must assume his responsibilities," Correa said. "But we also
believe in human rights and due process."
He said Biden had asked him to send
Snowden back to the United States immediately because he
faces criminal charges, is a fugitive from justice and has
had his passport revoked.
"I told him that we would analyze his
opinion, which is very important to us," Correa said, adding
that he had demanded the return of several Ecuadoreans who
are in the United States but face criminal charges at home.
"I greatly appreciated the call," he
said, contrasting it with threats made by a small group of
U.S. senators to revoke Ecuadorean trade privileges. "When I
received the call from Vice President Biden, which was with
great cordiality and a different vision, we really welcomed
it a lot."
Ecuadorean officials believe Russian
authorities stymied the country's efforts to approve a
political asylum application from the former NSA systems
analyst, according to government officials with direct
knowledge of the case.
Those officials said Ecuador had been
making detailed plans to receive and host Snowden. One of
the officials said Russia's refusal to let Snowden leave or
be picked up by Ecuadorean officials had thwarted the plans.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they
weren't authorized to discuss the case by name.
One of the officials said Snowden had
intended to travel from Moscow to the Ecuadorean capital of
Quito. The official said Ecuador had also asked Russia to
let Snowden take a commercial flight to meet Foreign
Minister Ricardo Patino in Vietnam or Singapore, where
Patino was on an official trip.
The Russians rejected all of Ecuador's
requests to let Snowden leave Moscow, or to let an
Ecuadorean government plane pick him up there, the official
said.
Asked Sunday about those accounts,
Correa responded, without elaborating, "We don't have
long-range aircraft. It's a joke."
Snowden's path to Ecuador would have
gone through Cuba, which said little about the case all
week, including whether it would have allowed him to use its
territory to transit.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro praised
Correa's rejection of U.S. trade pressure, expressing his
"sympathies" for the Ecuadorean leader in a Sunday editorial
in the state press.
------- Gonzalo Solano contributed
from Quito, Ecuador. Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to
this report.
Copyright © Yuma Sun, Inc. 2013