MEXICO OFFERS ASYLUM TO WIKILEAKS FOUNDER JULIAN ASSANGE

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador offered political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a move that could anger the United States, which is seeking his extradition.

Celebrating a decision by a British judge to deny a request to extradite Assange to the United States, Lopez Obrador said he wanted his foreign minister to ask Britain if it could release Assange so Mexico could offer him asylum.

“Assange is a journalist and deserves a chance,” he said. “We’ll give him protection,” Daina Beth Solomon and Dave Graham reported for Reuters.

US authorities accuse Assange of offenses during the administration of former President Barack Obama relating to the release by WikiLeaks of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables which they say put lives at risk.

Although the Obama administration opted not to prosecute Assange, Lopez Obrador’s offer drew criticism as an undiplomatic gesture given that Obama’s former vice president Joe Biden is about to assume the US presidency.

“Lopez Obrador seems to be making an effort to damage US relations just as Joe Biden prepares to take office,” said Mark Feierstein, a former Obama administration official. Lopez Obrador has said he expects to have good relations with Biden as president.

Still, he upset Democrats by waiting weeks to recognize Biden’s election victory over Republican President Donald Trump.

Feierstein said it was ironic that Lopez Obrador regularly attacked Mexican journalists for trying to hold his government to account, and was now supporting one who had worked with hackers to embarrass the United States.

In November, a senior Mexican official said 2020 was the most violent year for journalists in Mexico in at least a decade, with 19 murdered.

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