QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is finding himself in open conflict with his Ecuadorean protectors as the group's latest dump targeting Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign runs afoul of the South American government's goal of warming up to Washington.
Ecuador's move to cut off his internet access at its embassy in London was a stinging rebuke from leftist President Rafael Correa, who in 2012 heralded Assange as a digital-age Robin Hood and granted him asylum over protests from the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden, where he faces allegations of rape.
[...] allowing him to keep leaking secrets from the embassy risks putting the small Andean nation unwittingly on Russia's side of a brewing cyber-battle with the United States, Ecuador's top trade partner, at a time of deep economic stress.
The cascade of disclosures of Democratic operatives' hacked emails, including this week's publication of Clinton's speeches to Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs, has been hailed by Republican candidate Donald Trump as evidence of his rival's dishonesty.
"Assange has inserted Ecuador in the U.S. presidential campaign and exposed it to retaliation in case Clinton wins," said former Foreign Minister Mauricio Gandara, adding that the publication of stolen documents is considered a crime in Ecuador.
[...] with Venezuela in economic freefall and ideological allies losing power in countries like Argentina and Brazil, Correa has quietly extended an olive branch to the Obama administration and sought to deepen commercial ties.
