Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has said his government is willing to give political asylum to US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, offering a glimmer of hope for the fugitive holed up in Moscow's airport.
The leftist leader said his country received an asylum application at its embassy in Moscow.
"We are open, respectful of the right to asylum, and it is clear that if circumstances permit it, we would receive Snowden with pleasure and give him asylum here in Nicaragua," Ortega said at a public event yesterday.
In apparent limbo in Moscow, Snowden has applied for asylum in 27 countries as he tries to evade American justice for disclosing a vast US electronic surveillance program.
But his bids have been rebuffed by several European nations as well as Brazil and India.
The 30-year-old former National Security Agency contractor has received more sympathetic words from leftist governments in Latin America, with the leaders of Venezuela and Bolivia saying they would be willing to consider giving him sanctuary.
Ecuador had been seen as his best hope when he arrived at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport since June 23 from Hong Kong, but the leftist government in Quito has yet to consider his application.
WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website aiding Snowden, revealed on Tuesday the name of 21 nations in which he applied for asylum, and it disclosed yesterday that he was seeking shelter in six more countries.
"They will not be named at this time due to attempted US interference," WikiLeaks wrote on its Tweeter feed.
Snowden's flight from justice has embarrassed the administration of US President Barack Obama and caused tensions this week between European and Latin American nations after an incident involving the Bolivian president's plane.
The small jet carrying President Evo Morales back to Bolivia from Russia was forced to divert to Austria late Tuesday after it was denied entry into the airspace of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal amid suspicions he was whisking Snowden away.
Leftist South American leaders rallied around Morales at a summit late Thursday in which they demanded an apology from the European nations.
The Bolivian leader, who suggested that the United States pressured Europeans to close their airspace to him, threatened to close the US embassy. Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro claimed that the CIA had ordered Europeans to divert the plane.
