Saturday, July 06, 2013

Maduro and Snowden

I'm quoted in this story (though my title is a bit off, since I am no longer Director of Latin American Studies!) about Nicolás Maduro's offer of asylum to Edward Snowden.

The quote came from my thinking about how it would be better for Maduro if Snowden didn't take him up on it--this story could potentially die out quickly. Indeed, we have no idea whether Snowden wants to go to Venezuela at all if he has other offers. He wants to show he can make Chávez-type international gestures, and if Snowden doesn't show up he at least demonstrated his willingness to stand up to international imperialism, etc. Snowden is a unpredictable hot potato, one who may not be the shiny anti-U.S. toy an opportunistic president might hope for.

At least from what I have seen, Snowden--or Wikileaks, which now seems to be speaking for him--has not responded at all. Once again, no one is sure where he is.

1 comments:

Justin Delacour 4:48 PM  

"Snowden is a unpredictable hot potato, one who may not be the shiny anti-U.S. toy an opportunistic president might hope for."

What do you mean by "anti-U.S."? Was it "anti-U.S." for Chavez to consistently criticize the U.S. government?

Such a formulation seems to presuppose that the U.S. government and the U.S. foreign policy establishment are somehow the equivalent of everything that the United States represents. Perhaps you should specify what you mean by "anti-U.S."

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