video of full speech at end of transcript



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I am here because I cannot be closer to you.

Thank you for being here.

Thanks you for your resolve and your generosity of spirit.

On Wednesday night, after a threat was sent to this embassy and the police descended on the building, you came out in the middle of the night to watch over it, and you brought the world's eyes with you.

Inside the embassy after dark I could hear teams of police swarming up into the building through the internal fire escape. But I knew that there would be witnesses.

And that is because of you.

If the UK did not throw away the Vienna conventions the other that is because the world was watching.

And the world was watching because you were watching.

So the next time somebody tells you that it is pointless to defend those rights we hold dear, remind them of your vigil in the dark before the Embassy Of Ecuador... Remind them how, in the morning, the sun came up on a different world and a courageous and a courageous Latin American nation took a stand for justice.

And so to those brave people I thank President Correa for the courage he has shown in considering and in granting me political asylum.

And so I thank the government and the Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino who have upheld the Ecuadorian constitution and its notion of universal citizenship in their consideration of my case.

And to the Ecuadorian people for supporting and defending this constitution. And I have a debt of gratitude to the staff of this embassy whose families live in London and who have shown me hospitality and kindness despite the threats that they all received.

This Friday there will be an emergency meeting of the foreign ministers of Latin America in Washington DC to address this very situation. And so I am grateful to the people and governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela and to all of the other Latin American countries who have come to defend the right to asylum.

To the people of the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia who have supported me in strength even when their governments have not, and to those wiser heads in government who are still fighting for justice, your day will come.

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