Venezuela and Nicaragua offered Asylum to Edward Snowden

Venezuela government on 6 July 2013 offered to give humanitarian asylum to US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who is waiting at a Moscow airport for some nation to offer him sanctuary.

Moments earlier, Nicaragua government also expressed its willingness to give asylum to the US fugitive, offering a glimmer of hope to Snowden, who has been in limbo at Moscow's international airport since 23 June 2013.

Snowden has applied for asylum in 27 countries as he tries to evade American justice for disclosing a vast US electronic surveillance program. But his bids have been rebuffed by several European nations as well as Brazil and India.

Edward Joseph Snowden is an American former technical contractor for the United States National Security Agency (NSA) and a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He leaked details of top-secret US and British government mass surveillance programs such as PRISM to the press. Snowden was born on 21 June 1983.