The US makes a joke of diplomacy.
Politics is politics. In this dirty world, authoritarian leaders like Putin or Correa become "defenders of Human Rights."
American diplomacy is going through a delicate moment. After numerous blunders in cases such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya (to name just a few), intelligence must confront former CIA agent Edward Snowden and his "protectors."
For those who don't remember, Snowden was the young man who made one of the biggest data leaks in history. He exposed the Obama administration's wiretapping policy, which has done little to date to clean up its image.
Snowden fled to Hong Kong and has been considered "missing" since Sunday. It seemed as if the man had vanished from the face of the earth.
After much difficulty, and "indirect" comments from the White House, the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, admitted that the man (who recently turned 30) is in a "transit area" of Moscow's international airport.
Rumors indicated that Snowden would follow the Bolivarian route: after Moscow, Havana, Caracas, and finally Quito. Incredibly, Rafael Correa granted diplomatic asylum to the hacker, exactly as he did with Julian Assange. In the latter case, all that remains is to reach an agreement with the British for the Wikileaks mastermind to settle permanently in South America.
Returning to Snowden, it's worth mentioning the article by Simon Tisdall, assistant editor of the excellent Guardian (the newspaper that published the refugee's first revelations), on the CNN website.
Tisdall doesn't believe that American foreign policy can dictate certain behaviors from other nations. "It's as if the White House law applies to everyone. That would be like entering a house without proper authorization."
Would the US hand over "enemies" from countries like China, Russia, or Ecuador? And what about Human Rights, an area where the American government is a fierce defender? Politics is politics. Unfortunately, in most cases, the blow is below the belt.
Another point: liberal countries, such as France and Germany, are not happy with the advanced level of espionage carried out by Obama. So much so that at the last meeting of the moribund G8, Chancellor Angela Merkel, with all due composure, gave the Democratic leader a dressing-down.
Politics is politics. In this dirty world, authoritarian leaders like Putin or Correa become "defenders of Human Rights".