•OFFER: Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday he will extend asylum protection to Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who is in the UK fighting extradition to the US, and added he favors the US granting him a pardon for the alleged espionage offenses he faces.
•ASSESSMENT: On the same day that a UK judge blocked Assange’s extradition to the US over mental health concerns and pending a potential appeal, López Obrador said he will extend Assange asylum in the name of Mexico’s tradition of providing protection to international figures.
•TRIUMPH: “I am pleased that Mr. Assange has been given protection in England, that the extradition to the US has not been authorized. It is a triumph of justice. I am pleased that they acted in this way in England because Assange is a journalist and deserves an opportunity”, López Obrador said.
•PRECEDENT: In 2012, the Ecuadorian government offered asylum to Assange after WikiLeaks published thousands of US diplomatic cables and documents related to the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Until his arrest in 2019, Assange remained inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
