Ecuador, boosted by Latam support ready to resume talks with UK on the Assange case
Following the strong unanimous support from Latin America approved by OAS, Ecuador will resume talks with the UK over the future of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange currently holed in at the Ecuadorean embassy in London, announced on Monday the country’s Foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño.
Likewise on Saturday a spokesperson from the Foreign Office said that the UK retains its position “in favour of dialogue” relative to the Assange case who is accused of sex crimes in Sweden and has a pending extradition order.
Patiño’s statement comes after the OAS voted a resolution expressing “full solidarity and support” for Ecuador on the case which was centred on the inviolability of embassy and consular premises, following a veiled challenge from the UK at the beginning of the conflict. Ecuador previously had received the support from Unasur and Alba, the group of nations headed by Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez.
The latest to join in support was the Andean Parliament, a consulting body which has representatives from Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, which was holding a special session in Quito.
“The Andean Parliament only pretends to join the solid continental solidarity which has emerged in an issue which is of interest to one of the members of the Andean Community of Nations”, said Hector Rojas, Colombian lawmaker and currently president of the Parliament.
Patiño said that contacts with the UK will begin on instructions from his government and as a result of support resolutions from Alba, OAS and Unasur. The purpose of the contacts is to ensure Assange, to whom Ecuador has granted political asylum “can be liberated from an extradition to the US”.
Over the weekend Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa proposed London extends a free passage to the Wikileaks founder so he can abandon the embassy in London with no danger of arrest or that Sweden extends guarantees that it will not extradite him to a third country.
Assange who is protected in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since June argues he is the target of a political persecution because of the release of thousands of diplomatic messages through Wikileaks which have ashamed several countries, particularly the US. He also fears that if finally sent to the US he could face life imprisonment or the death sentence.
Ecuador insists that at the beginning of the dispute it received a letter from the Foreign Office in which it warned of the enforcement of a law from 1987 which allowed the revocation of diplomatic immunity of the Ecuadorean embassy in London so the police could break in and arrest Assange.
Last week the UK observer at OAS Philip Barton denied that the British government was intent or threatening to raid the Ecuadorean embassy.
Ecuador accepted the UK delegate words as a ‘retraction’ of such a threat, said Patiño.
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51 comments Feed
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For what one person and some token support to cover up for the problems in your own country? I'd of hoped that he would of realise this hasn't worked for CFK who has less than 30% support now.
Tell us when you're ready to hand him over and then pack your bags.
Ecuador accepted the UK delegate words as a ‘retraction’ of such a threat, said Patiño.”
Only in South American could the above first sentence be understood to mean the last.
Trying to gain short term political points will only come back and hurt Ecuador in the future - They are well out of their depth here but seem unable to recognise it.
”Right of asylum (or political asylum, from the Greek: ἄσυλον[1]) is an ancient juridical notion, under which a person persecuted for political opinions or religious beliefs in his or her own country may be protected by another sovereign authority,” Assange isn't being persecuted in his own country for his political opinions or religious beliefs. His own country is Australia. He is, however, subject to judicial process wherever he goes. Thus, Sweden wants him (and they are welcome) for an internal domestic judicial process that is not political. Britain is trying to return him to Sweden so that that process can take place. Ecuador has interfered in that and is thus well beyond acceptable diplomatic behaviour. Britain could simply expel the Ecuadorian embassy. Note that an embassy is people, not a place. With no Ecuadorian diplomatic personnel in the UK, the Ecuadorian chancery would simply revert to its normal status of being a flat in London. No reason why British police cannot enter it. As a matter of fact, Assange might get to add trespass to his charge sheet. No question of “violating” an “embassy” then, is there? Of course, it might be several years before Ecuador was allowed to have an embassy to the UK again! Alternatively, Ecuador could just hand him over.
Status Quo: House arrest pending trial.
This nonsense about extradition to the USA is just that - nonsense. He's been to the UK and Sweden numerous times without these worries and then all of a sudden he's frantically worried about extradition to the USA when the Swedes accuse him of rape. It makes no logical sense at all - especially when it's easier for the USA to extradite him from the UK in the first place. The only logical conclusion to be drawn is that he's using the Wilileaks saga as a smokescreen to avoid rape charges in Sweden.
This was then intepreted by Ecuador as the 'threat' being withdrawn. This is simply Ecuador twisting a statement to back down and not loose face. Something the UK government are happy to have happen in the hope talks will proceed.
We all know he's not British but he always does his homework and he's definitely holding his own.
So Ecuador can grant what they like but unless the UK let him travel he's going nowhere (unless its Sweden of course). So you see its very much relevant what the UK “adjudges”.
And now we have an impasse as Ecuador have built this up and therefore put themselves in a position they cannot back away from without looking weak. The UK however will probably not back down either based on the principle that Ecuadors approach to the whole thing has been rude, over the top and not how they like to do diplomacy (i.e. shout louder than your opponent).
The only out I can see that doesn't involve a break of diplomatic relations between UK/Ecuador is the assurance that he wont be extradited to Sweden. However, I have to ask the question... what makes Mr Assange so special that he should be granted such state level promises? The case against him is pretty flimsy so he should just go and defend himself rather than consider himself above the law.
Also, something I've been struggling to get and maybe someone can help me here is why would it be easier to extradite him from Sweden to the US? Whats the point of that?
Um - er - did anyone understand a word of that?
I think he's trying to sell something.
How would that solve anything? If he don't trust Swedish law why would he trust a guarantee from Swedish politicians - whom he accuses of conspiring against him?
@11 really! political asylum does not grant you immunity to arrest on british soil of a crime. so how is ecuador getting him to the banana republic?? in small pieces?? that suits me :)
@12 who said hes going to usa, thats none of UKs concern? as far as UK is concerned hes wanted in sweden over rape allegations, regardless of ecuadors amusing squeels, end of.
@14 Juba is that your educated contribution, or just another compulsive LATAM inbred blurt?? its difficult to tell the difference!
@16 Agreed! i hope ecuador is setting its own standard for all foreign criminals abroad regardless of the crimes or the criminal as they dont even recognize the most hanus of criminal acts. so ALL foreign criminals quickly go to your nearest Ecuador embassy and ask for asylum, unless your of high profile i dont fancy your chances and theres is also the difficulty of reaching the airport from the embassy. :)))) check!
@17 No, and neither did The racist JUBA, no doubt a side effect of rampant Inbreeding and years of masturbating in infected animals.
Hes the reason why i dont buy corned beef from Argentina!
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!
& SELF-DETERMINATION! (to whom its irritates) :)))
@17 Idlehands Most Western countries are the 'puppets' of the US government because behind the scenes, the make simple economic threats against them if they don't initially agree with what they are doing. Anyone who disagrees with this is blind from the truth.
As to regards with Assange, he's not a rapist, and far from it.
you have proof of your fantasized allegations of economic threats, troll? i would like to see that, or is this your bedtime conspiracy theory?
assnage not a rapist, how would you know this? was you there?, one thing thats 100% fact he is accused of rape, sorry thats the truth!
anybody can make a username stating a false persona, i would of thought “THETit” would have been more accurate. :)
@23 Ecuador have now got themselves into a rut with no chance of saving face, Thats what happens when inbreds run tinpot south american countries and try to mix it with the big boys.
but hey, ITS ALL GOOD!!!!
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!
& SELF-DETERMINATION! (this is for you “THEBrit”) :)))
@16 You should look at European-wide policy not to extradite where the criminal may be subject to the dealth penalty. However, since Ecuador clearly doesn't understand its immunities and privileges, or how it has stepped beyond the bounds of acceptable diplomatic behaviour, I assume that neither Sweden nor the UK is prepared to mention that. So Assange can stay there indefinitely. I wonder what his diet is like? The only food mentioned so far is take-away pizza. How long before he starts suffering from scurvy?
nobody is going to come to the sex offenders rescue in the 11th hour in shining armour to make this go away for the rapist he has crimes to answer to, and he will eventually unconditionally go to sweden to face trial for sexual offences. I dont believe sweden will take the time he spent in the embassy off any sentence he may receive. wether he goes to US after i couldnt care less, rapists in prison have a short shelf life, there are rape victims that will need closure.
Im just waiting for the The Hague bleeding hearts to play the Human rights card and how rapists mental and physical health is suffering!
So this IS a Witch hunt after all.
However when it comes to Assange you complain about the lack of proof.
The bottom line is you don't know what goes on behind the scenes diplomatically and you don't know what the evidence is against Assange either.
NB If you “rake through” the internet enough you'll find evidence that we're all governed by lizard men and the moon is made of cheese. Try a bit of objectivity rather than choosing to believe what you want to be true.
“And I don't need proof”, strange way to back your claim of the rapist being innocent, dont think that will stand in court somehow.
“Your nick must be 'wanker'” , why Thank you, coming from an anti-west inbred troll, i will take that as a compliment.
“Now just understand the fact that most of the well-known wars are caused by the US government and their greed, and the other 'puppets' that follow suit.”,
and you have proof to back this, Ahh thats right YOU dont need any, wait! is this you assmange you rapist??
@27 Its a picture, but let me ask you does this prove he didnt rape her?
do you realize how many women are in relationships where rape is the norm, and its only after the relationship has ended they see the truth, nice picture but this does not prove anything let alone his innocense, maybe if he is so confident he should stand trial with that photo in his hand, whats he waiting for??
The other problem for Ecuador, of course, is that they have given Assange “diplomatic asylum” which is not recognised outside Latin America.
I think Correa has realised he is on a hiding to nothing and that he must now be more mature and deal with the matter with diplomacy and not by accusations.
He and his crony, Patiño, really must grow up and learn how to get respect.
@31 PirateLove As for the 'don't need proof' part, that has nothing to do with Assange as I was talking about the US. Read more carefully next time. And yes like I said, most educated people know that the US has a lot of control over several countries, and they are like puppets. The US loves to invade countries just because they have something that the government wants, or has ideologies that oppose their own. Example- Vietnam, where the US occupied the country with 400,000 soldiers to 'combat increasing influences of communism in the region'. If the US can do that, then it would also be okay for Russia to invade Canada because they are capitalist. It's stupid. The US has no right to kill millions of people just because there is a different approach to life from theirs. Both communism and capitalism have many faults, therefore they have no reason to say that either one is worse. In fact, both have many good points to them, like in communism the idea is that every person is equal, and in capitalism is that people can compete with each other for jobs and business. I think it would benefit the world if we could somehow merge some of the ideas out of both of them, and could be better than either one by themselves.
I never said that the picture proved it didn't rape her, but could possibly undermine her case. I've said plenty of times that we will never know the EXACT truth, but can have indications that it may be false. I am just on the side that thinks he's right. We should respect each others views.I will
@26 Are you old enough to be on here? Perhaps you don't remember the tens of thousands of argies celebrating in the streets when they thought they were “winning” in '82, killing British, including Scottish, servicemen in support of an illegal invasion based on a lie.
@28 And I saw your Daily Mail photo. Can you point to where the date and time is shown on the print? Incidentally, when did you become a judge and jury? Or is that another quirk of the Scottish legal system? But at least we can agree that when a big, corrupt, greedy, lying, thieving place like argieland tries to steal the land and resources of a little place like the Falklands, the argies have to be fought and beaten! Again!
@33 How easy you are to fool! So why is he running? And don't bother with the U.S. excuse.
That's dead easy to answer, The US has never let something as trivial as innocense get in the way of their political.... sorry, their justice system. He's better off out of that sh*t. I mean, when OJ simpson can get away with murder, and I mean “get away” with murder. What chance does JA have?
@34 do i get this right?,you are classing one case on the whole of the US justice system? im sorry, nobody is that narrow minded.
A White man uses a sports car as a getaway vehicle after a armed robbery, tell me does that make all sports car owners armed robbers or just white drivers? thats your logic, or would you say that the more rational approach is that there is odd cases in ALL countries that their justice system occasionally makes terrible mistakes? I would
Also, you say that Scotland should be more grateful: well thanks, never said we weren't, but your country would be kind of fucked too if it wasn't for our help too. WE HELPED EACH OTHER, not just England helping us. So maybe you guys should be thankful too that we helped your country develop into what it is today. I don't agree at all with your comment that we can't survive on our own: trust me, we'll get there. And we'll still help England too, since you're pretty cool. Just understand that I, and many Scots, hate the English controlled government, as they don't represent our views at all.
But i know where your coming from with 3rd world countries and its always the children that suffer the most, but to put hate solely on the US when the world as a whole has responsibility and has so much money is just wrong, there are hardships in some 3rd world countries where money isnt the cure but is the root problem.
Bloody ‘ell
WHy does ecuador need all of latin american to voice a formal statement of support. Do they not have the mental fortitude to deal with Great Britain? OAS needs to get out of my country and go back to being the pan american union. It's about as useful as the UN and serves n purpose other than a platform for the southern hemispheric socialist.
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