If Snowden Tries To Get To Latin America, Cuba Could Be Key

If Snowden Tries To Get To Latin America, Cuba Could Be Key
by MARK MEMMOTT
July 06, 2013 8:20 AM

The news that the leaders of Venezuela and Nicaragua say they're willing
to give asylum to "NSA leaker" Edward Snowden raises an obvious question:

If Russian authorties give him permission to leave, can he get to either
country from Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, where he's been lingering in
legal limbo for nearly two weeks?

ABC News points out that:

"The only 'safe' commercial flight across the Atlantic — one that would
avoid U.S. extradition treaties — is to Cuba. Cuba has an extradition
treaty from 1904, but the Castro government could chose to ignore it.
From Havana, Snowden could connect to Caracas, Venezuela, or Managua,
Nicaragua."
But according to Reuters, "it is not clear if the Cuban authorities
would let him transit ... and there was no sign of Snowden aboard the
flight to Havana on Saturday." What's more, "given the dramatic
grounding in Vienna of the Bolivian president's plane this week over
suspicions that Snowden was onboard, using European airspace could prove
problematic."

With financial help from his supporters, ABC News adds, Snowden might be
able to charter a private plane. It writes that: "Reports last week
quoted the cost of a private plane to Ecuador to be more than $200,000
on one of the few private jets that could make the trip without
refueling. Similar flights to Venezuela or Nicaragua would presumably be
only a bit less."

Of course, some nations might try to block a plane with Snowden aboard
from flying through their airspace. It's unlikely, though, that they
would use force to make a jet land. As President Obama said last week,
"I'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker."

Morales' plane had to land somewhere in Europe to refuel.

Source: "If Snowden Tries To Get To Latin America, Cuba Could Be Key :
The Two-Way : NPR" -
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/07/06/199337924/if-snowden-tries-to-get-to-latin-america-cuba-could-be-key