MEXICO CITY, July 7 (RIA Novosti) – Venezuela, which has offered asylum to former CIA employee Edward Snowden, will wait for the fugitive intelligence expert’s reply on Monday, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said on Sunday.
“We are waiting for Monday, first of all, to learn whether he [Snowden] confirms his intention to get asylum in Venezuela,” Jaua was quoted as saying by Venezuela-based Globovision TV channel.
Snowden, who is believed to be hiding in a Moscow airport, has not held any contacts with Venezuelan officials so far, Jaua said.
Snowden, who is wanted by the US for leaking details of secret state surveillance programs, has submitted more than 20 requests for asylum. Most have been rejected, or countries have told the former National Security Agency contractor that he must be present on their soil to submit such an application.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced on Saturday that Caracas would be willing to grant Snowden asylum. "In the name of America's dignity ... I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to Edward Snowden," Maduro said during a military parade marking Venezuela's independence day, Reuters reported.
On Friday Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega said his country would “receive Snowden with pleasure,” according to Sky News.
Also on Saturday, Bolivia became the third country to say that it would be prepared to offer political asylum to the fugitive intelligence expert, according to media reports.
Snowden arrived in Russia on a flight to Moscow from Hong Kong on June 23. The United States has revoked Snowden’s passport, and he is now believed to be holed up in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.
Russia was one of the countries to which Snowden submitted an asylum application, but he withdrew his request after President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Snowden would only be able to stay if he “stopped his work aimed at harming our US partners.”
