WikiLeaks has long reported that the $10 billion IMF bailout for Ecuador was closely related to complying with US demands, in particular on revoking the asylum of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. On Thursday, that appeared to come to pass.
Following recent days of Ecuador’s leadership saying Assange’s asylum would not last forever, he was arrested by British police within the London Embassy. Ecuador has tried to present this as related to continuing WikiLeaks operations, and in particular a January leak of Vatican documents.
Ecuador’s economy has been struggling mightily in recent years, and the government has bet much on their ability to secure a bailout. In the end, the US sway over the IMF meant that Ecuador was required to placate the US to get that money.
Ecuador’s recent attempts to stake out a comparatively independent foreign policy, something of which the Assange asylum move was a product, made them a lot of enemies, particularly in the US. As the government now tries to get on the good side of the US, Assange was the main thing the Americans wanted, and Ecuador seems more than willing to try to facilitate that.
While official IMF statements make no specific mentions of Assange, the clear link between the two is likely to continue to loom large, particularly in any US attempts to secure extradition for Assange after having bought his expulsion and ultimate arrest by Britain.
I guess he”s a real threat to someone. It will be comic enema for May in May…..
A disgrace. This is what happens when you expose US war crimes.
So far only two presidential candidates, Tulsi Gabbard and Mike Gravel, have expressed support for Assange.
Once more Tulsi walks the walk while others do not.
Where are you Ro Khanna and Bernie and Barbara Lee and Reps. Jayapal, Massie and Amash. Profiles in Courage they are not. (Kamala and Spartacus and Granny Warren and the Latino Leprechaun are hardly worth mentioning they are such Establishment phonies.)
https://twitter.com/MikeGravel/status/1116379216570986496
Official statement from Sen. Mike Gravel about the arrest of Julian Assange.
“Today I strand with Julian Assange and Wikileaks….”
And where is your man Trump?
I love Pamela
https://www.rt.com/news/456243-pamela-anderson-assange-arrest-betrayal/
‘UK, you are America’s bitch’: Pamela Anderson launches scathing tweetstorm following Assange arrest.
That article was posted on Yahoo and the comments would make you cry. And so many of them. Scary.
Duh!!
Our ghouls have a case for their bone saws… It saws Harp….
I guess everything comes at a price, nothing and no one is/are entirely free. The US will not succeed at extraditing Assange unless they promise to not torture or execute him. Since we know what US government promises are worth, the question is what will the UK do if the US breaks that promise. Little to nothing unless it’s clear inaction will result in serious consequences, I bet… Britain has no principles they are bound to respect. So the price is enough people bothering to making those consequences clear to the UK govt if this hero’s life and freedom have any future.
How will the UK even know if the US breaks their promise? It’s not like they’ll be present when our ghouls get a hold of him.
IMF blackmail. The US is the last old-school bully on the planet. The Wallace Beery of empires.
Watch a “Collateral Murder” documentary before passing judgment on Manning and Assange. The material is not allowed to be used by the defense. Everyone should see how the US wins hearts and minds.
It’s possible perhaps that people are too young to recall the 80s-90s “50 Years Is Enough” campaign & the writings of international debt hounds like Susan George & Graham Hancock (who despite being a general kook wrote an excellent attack on the IMF & IBRD titled “Lords of Poverty.” An IMF is NO FORM OF GIFT. This is not a difficult thing to give away & in fact we can more accurately describe it a being forced upon the developing world. It’s not as if Ecuadorans are rioting in the streets to ask for an onerous IMF loan with its neoliberal structural adjustment policies attached.
This is NOT a quid pro quo. This is a parallel structure; the new-ish Ecuadoran govt happens to be staffed by exactly the sort of corrupt neoliberal neocolonialist Quislings who’d be inclined to turn both their economy & Assange over to the worst elements in DC. It’s not as if countries come begging to the Bretton Woods institutions to please please pretty please become indebted to the West in exchange for a loss of sovereignty and the Wet says “No no! We’d not want THAT! First you have to do something for us!” The whole notion reads like an article that smack dealers won’t sell addicts heroin because they really don’t want the money, unless the addicts do some favors for the dealers first.
I hope President Moreno dies in a boiling cauldron of molten gold.