Venezuela slams U.S. over 'repressive regimes' remarks
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro demanded the United
States apologize on Thursday after the Obama administration's nominee for envoy
to the United Nations said there was a crackdown on civil society in the South
American country. He said Samantha Power's comments to a Senate confirmation
hearing had been aggressive and unfair. Maduro has been the most vocal of three
Latin American leaders who offered asylum to Snowden, the 30-year-old former
National Security Agency contractor wanted by Washington for leaking details of
secret surveillance programs. During her Senate conformation hearing on
Wednesday, Power vowed to stand up against "repressive regimes", and
said that meant "contesting the crackdown on civil society being carried
out in countries like Cuba, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela.
Bolivia and Nicaragua
also subsequently offered him sanctuary, but Venezuela's government has said it
can do little to help him as long as he remains stuck at the airport. Maduro
became the first foreign leader to say explicitly that he was offering asylum
to Snowden, the NSA leaker who has been trapped in the transit zone of a Moscow
airport for more than three weeks.
0 comments:
Post a Comment