La Jornada Supports Asylum for Assange

MEXICO CITY – The leading Mexican paper La Jornada is strongly supporting asylum for Julian Assange in Ecuador, in a sign of Latin American sentiment against his extradition to Sweden or the United States. The conflict is portrayed as one between the Old World and new democratic norms embraced by much of the world.

A June 20 editorial declared:

“Ecuador will require the solidarity of honorable governments and societies like ours, which benefitted from the work of Assange and his team, and have obtained by way of their “leaks,” an invaluable tool for public scrutiny and social control of the authorities and world powers.”

The editorial continued:

"Whatever response the Rafael Correa government gives Assange, the existence of a political refugee in contemporary Europe, the legal fury being directed against him by the authorities of two Old World countries, England and Sweden, and the silence of the Western powers in regard to this situation, demonstrates the hypocrisy and moral and political bankruptcy of governments that repeatedly claim to be champions of freedom, transparency, legality and respect for human rights.”

"In this connection, it is worth mentioning that yesterday, while Assange was seeking political asylum at the Ecuador Embassy to avoid being extradited to Swedish territory, representatives of these powers attended the G-20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, where there was confirmation of their inability to come up with proposals for resolving the social and economic devastation that confronts their populations, particularly in European countries."