The secrets came directly from the phones of President of : intimate pictures of him and his family on vacation, text messages from his wife, even a photograph of the president himself in a posh bedroom, eating a lobster in bed.
The material, published last month on an anonymous website, was particularly embarrassing because Moreno was in a bruising national fight over his austerity measures. But rather than mount a defence, the president played the victim: He blamed , whose founder, , had spent the last seven years holed up in the country’s London embassy.
WikiLeaks’ actions were “despicable,” said the country’s vice president on television, vowing to take action. The group denied leaking the information, but on Thursday Ecuador made good on its threat — opening the door to British police officers who carted away Assange.
With that, Assange’s long refuge inside the Ecuadorean Embassy finally came to an end, the capstone of an international cat-and-mouse game involving stolen document dumps, promises of more to come, failed efforts to contain him and accusations of blackmail. Even as Ecuador harboured Assange from international prosecution, he and WikiLeaks wielded the threat of releasing damaging information against the Ecuadorean government.
In October 2016, as WikiLeaks was releasing thousands of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee and the personal account of John D Podesta, chairman of the campaign, Ecuador restricted Assange’s access to the internet, citing his interference in a foreign election.
The controversy was just the beginning of Assange’s difficulties. Moreno took over as president in May 2017 and soon broke with the policies of his predecessor. Advisers to Moreno met with Paul Manafort, who had served as Trump’s campaign chairman, and raised the possibility of releasing Assange in exchange for concessions like debt relief. Moreno said repeatedly that Assange’s time in the embassy should not be forever.
It was also clear that Moreno is eager for international loans and better relations with the US after the tensions that festered under his leftist predecessor, who granted Assange shelter in the embassy.
Then, Moreno’s government was hit by a familiar disruption: Leaks. In March, an anonymous website, INApapers.org, published around 200 private emails related to Moreno, text messages written by his wife and photos of the president and his family taking luxurious vacations in Europe. Moreno’s government was quick to blame the release on WikiLeaks.
On Thursday, Moreno repeated the claim, telling journalists that Assange didn’t have the right to “hack private accounts or phones.” But Ecuadorean officials contend that the expulsion comes from an extensive list of transgressions by Assange which incudes installing electronic distortion equipment in the embassy, blocking security cameras and gaining access to security files without permission.
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