Venezuela has confirmed Edward Snowden‘s asylum request, and it appears the country is preparing to bring Snowden to a new home.
President Nicolas Maduro, announced at a press conference Monday evening that his country had “received a letter requesting asylum,” according to RT. Venezuela’s government-run AVN news agency confirmed the statement.
On Saturday, Maduro announced that Venezuela would be the first, and possibly only, country to formally extend the offer to Snowden, who fled the U.S. with a laptop full of documents illustrating the NSA‘s vast spying practices. Snowden has been stuck in the international zone of a Moscow airport since June 23, after the U.S. revoked his passport and charged him with espionage. He’s since applied to nearly two dozens countries for asylum, but nearly all have turned him down.
Snowden “will need to decide when he will fly here,” Maduro said, indicating both that the process wasn’t yet complete, and that his government still intended to give Snowden safe haven.
Snowden’s other offers thus far have come from the governments of Bolivia and Nicaragua.
Photo by Nicolas Raymond/Flickr, illustration by Fernando Alfonso III