In an attempt to prevent Edward Snowden from seeking asylum in Latin America the USA is applying diplomatic pressure to Latin American countries such as Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and others. Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia have already made formal offers of asylum to Edward Snowden and the USA is trying to ensure that no other sympathisers get on board with the NSA whistleblower.
A NY Times report suggests that the USA has been threatening Latin American countries. They have stated that letting Edward Snowden in would “have lasting consequences” and “would put relations in a very bad place for a long time to come”. Furthermore they state that all state governments understand their position right now and should do their best to support the USA in bring Snowden back to the USA for trial.
Despite these threats it seems unlikely that Latin America will give way to American pressure any time soon as Ecuador and Venezuela have already publicly condemned the USA, Cuba have backed the actions of Latin America and at the UNASUR (Union of South American Nations) meeting last week the overwhelming consensus was anti-USA.
We wonder what options the USA has left before it has to resort to dirty-tactics like anti-competitive trade practices or military expeditions.
Image courtesy of brlatina.com
Military expeditions? Yeah. They could recruit MS personnel to bolster their numbers seeing that MS seems to be in bed with the NSA at the moment. Alternatively MS could just stop supporting older version of Windows in Latin America and force them to use Win 8 exclusively. That should weaken their resistance and make them come to the table.