Things keep getting more and more ridiculous concerning the Ed Snowden asylum drama. It’s never been fully explained how or why Snowden decided to link up with Wikileaks to get “help” in finding a place to get asylum, but ever since then, Wikileaks has been presenting itself as Snowden’s spokesperson, and apparently that’s not going over well with some people, including Ecuador, the one country to most prominently express interest in granting Snowden asylum, and the country which granted him travel documents. Except, in large part because of the Wikileaks connection, Ecuador has pulled those papers, in a move that seems to be a combination of petty politics and spite:

President Rafael Correa halted an effort to help Snowden leave Russia amid concern Assange was usurping the role of the Ecuadoran government, according to leaked diplomatic correspondence published on Friday.

Amid signs Quito was cooling with Snowden and irritated with Assange, Correa declared invalid a temporary travel document which could have helped extract Snowden from his reported location in Moscow.

Correa declared that the safe conduct pass issued by Ecuador’s London consul – in collaboration with Assange – was unauthorised, after other Ecuadorean diplomats privately said the WikiLeaks founder could be perceived as “running the show”.

Apparently, some Ecuadorian officials have been urging Ecuador’s president to distance himself from Assange, and that the public perception was that Assange was running the show, rather than Ecuador. Of course, I wonder how much of this has to do with other leaks concerning Ecuador’s own surveillance efforts as well. Or, perhaps more likely, how much it has to do with threats from the US should Ecuador accommodate Snowden.

It does seem likely that even without Ecuadorian travel papers, some country will happily take Snowden. But, in the meantime, it presents yet another complication.

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