Venezuelan President Offers Asylum to Edward Snowden on Venezuela's Independence Day

"I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young American, Edward Snowden, so that in the fatherland of (Simon) Bolivar and (Hugo) Chavez, he can come and live away from the imperial North American persecution"

Earlier, there was a report that Nicaragua was considering granting asylum, too.

From Reuters (7/5/2013; emphasis is mine):

Venezuela's Maduro offers asylum to Snowden

(Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Friday he had decided to offer asylum to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who has petitioned several countries to avoid capture by Washington.

"In the name of America's dignity ... I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to Edward Snowden," Maduro told a televised military parade marking Venezuela's independence day.

The 30-year-old former National Security Agency contractor is believed to be holed up in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport.

WikiLeaks said on Friday that Snowden had applied to six more nations for asylum, bringing to about 20 the number of countries he has asked for protection from U.S. espionage charges.

Maduro said Venezuela was ready to offer him sanctuary, and that the details Snowden had revealed of a U.S. spy program had exposed the nefarious schemes of the U.S. "empire."

"He has told the truth, in the spirit of rebellion, about the U.S. spying on the whole world," Maduro said.

"Who is the guilty one? A young man ... who denounces war plans, or the U.S. government which launches bombs and arms the terrorist Syrian opposition against the people and legitimate President Bashar al-Assad?"

"Who is the terrorist? Who is the global delinquent?"

Russia has shown signs of growing impatience over Snowden's stay in Moscow. Its deputy foreign minister said on Thursday that Snowden had not sought asylum in that country and needed to choose a place to go.

Moscow has made clear that the longer he stays, the greater the risk of the diplomatic standoff over his fate causing lasting damage to relations with Washington.

Zero Hedge seems to have captured the earlier version of the same Reuters article, which had a different wording of what the president of Venezuela said:

"I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young American, Edward Snowden, so that in the fatherland of (Simon) Bolivar and (Hugo) Chavez, he can come and live away from the imperial North American persecution,"

Here's Nicaragua's remarks, via RT USA:

Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega said on Friday that he had received an asylum request from US NSA-leaker Edward Snowden and could accept the bid "if circumstances permit."

"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.

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Financial Crises Brewing in Latin America

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez devalues the currency (bolivar) by 50%. And Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner wants to seize bank reserves at the country's central bank.

Constitutional Showdown in Argentina (MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY, 1/10/2010 Wall Street Journal)

"Argentine President Cristina Kirchner's firing of the country's central bank president last Wednesday has provoked a constitutional crisis, not unlike the one that rocked Honduras last summer. As with then-Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, Mrs. Kirchner has tried to run roughshod over her nation's laws. She blithely ignored legal protections of bank independence.

"Not surprisingly, central banker Martín Redrado refused to go and challenged her reason for sacking him: his refusal to hand over to her $6.6 billion in bank reserves.

"In response, Mrs. Kirchner issued a decree to amend the bank's charter so that she could push Mr. Redrado out "legally." A federal judge then issued an injunction in favor of Mr. Redrado, and on Friday he returned to his bank post. The same judge froze the bank's reserves so Mrs. Kirchner couldn't take them. The constitutional battle lines were drawn.

"Mrs. Kirchner's insistence that the central bank's assets should be at her disposal is noteworthy. It reflects a primitive view, not unknown even in the U.S., that the role of a central bank is to print money for the government's use. Yet it is nonetheless surprising that even after the nation has suffered so much inflationary agony, it is still possible for an Argentine politician to pursue this line of reasoning without risk of being tarred and feathered." [emphasis is mine] (The article continues.)

Primitive, maybe, but that's exactly what the first central bank was set up for: to print money for the government's use, and that government was Britain in 1694. The reason why a politician like her is not "tarred and feathered" is because the general public remain ignorant of how the monetary system works. Many people, including Venezuela's Chavez, believe more money, however fiat, means wealth.

To be precise, "bank reserves" that the above article talks about is not the required reserves or excess reserves that you see on the Federal Reserve balance sheet but "foreign exchange reserve". "Mr. Redrado [central bank governor] argues that Congress should decide on whether the payment should be made and says he is defending the bank's independence." (Argentina's Bad Timing by Richard Barley, 1/12/2010 Wall Street Journal)

Maybe what we are witnessing in Latin America is the beginning of of an end of the central bank franchise and of fiat money. For now it's a wishful thinking on my part.

But in Venezuela, Mr. Chavez believes he can force the price to stay low, while he basically doubles the money supply. In the U.S., Mr. Bernanke has doubled the monetary base which could more than double the money supply, and he has been buying up agency bonds and MBS at the behest of the Obama administration to force down the mortgage rates.

In Argentina, Ms. Kirchner thinks the nation's banks including the central bank are her checkbook account to pay for her pet government projects. In the U.S., President Obama is reportedly thinking about a levy on financial institutions to replenish TARP fund and to help balance the budget. Not even a lip service to cutting government spending here. (See the story from AP.)

Now the difference between the U.S. and "primitive"-thinking Venezuela and Argentina is getting very cosmetic.

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