The case of whistleblower Edward Snowden reminds us, in case we had forgotten it, that by its very essence spying is a murky job, no matter where and under which political system it is carried out. No less important, the Snowden case proves, in case we had any doubt, that hard left regimes -- notably those of Latin America -- excel at playing double standards in the field of human rights and respect of international law.
The details unveiled by Snowden undoubtedly represent a major embarrassment to the present U.S. administration. But his revelations contain very little in the way of new information, apart from the fact that they provide evidence of the sophistication of the technology utilized by U.S. intelligence services (something that no one would, after all, be surprised to discover).
Snowden's revelations further indicate that the U.S. does not use its espionage services to attempt to establish a one-party system, or to muzzle the press or to chase leaders of political parties and representatives of civil society. As a matter of fact, Snowden has not yet mentioned one single case of an American citizen being affected by the activities of the NSA.
The same cannot be said of the Latin American hard-left regimes that are using the Snowden case to portray themselves as champions in the fight for human rights.
The Cuban dissidents who are spied on day and night by the Castro regime, the Venezuelan opposition leaders who are victims of phone-tapping and arbitrary disqualifications and detentions, the Ecuadorian journalists who have been sued, or risk being sued, for exercising their right to criticize the government. The Argentinian newspaper Clarín, which the Kirchner regime is determined to smother financially and judicially, and Bolivia's opposition senator Roger Pinto, in political asylum for more than a year in the Embassy of Brazil at La Paz for having denounced cases of corruption and drug trafficking allegedly involving members of the government, would all be delighted to see the intelligence officers of their countries concentrate on keeping a watch on suspected terrorist groups and on foreign governments' internal discussions regarding international trade negotiations.
Instead, Latin America's hard-left regimes utilize their espionage network, and for that matter the bulk of state institutions and resources, to criminalize and stifle the opposition and independent press.
The double standards of Latin America's hard-left once again became clear when Panama's authorities intercepted a North Korean freighter, the Chong Chon Gang, while smuggling military equipment to Pyongyang from Cuba.
That shipment violated international provisions, in particular UN Security Council resolution 1718, adopted in 2006, which, among other things, bans imports from and transfers and exports to North Korea of missiles or missile systems and related materiel.
When caught red-handed, the Castro regime unsheathed one of its favorite sophisms by arguing that the weapons had been sent to North Korea for "repair" so that, once back in Cuba, they could contribute to "preserve the nation's sovereignty."
After the story of the Chong Chon Gang, a new scandal involving the Latin American hard-left has burst out. This one has to do with the diplomatic fuzz created by Bolivia's President Evo Morales, who had condemned with fury the inspection of his plane at the Vienna airport on his return from Moscow.
It has just been made public, however, that the Bolivian government had done exactly the same thing in 2011 when it inspected, without the consent and even under the protest of Brazilian authorities, three planes of Brazil's ministry of defense, one of which had brought to La Paz, in an official visit, the head of that ministry, Celso Amorim.
What is more, in trying to pull through the imbroglio brought about by the disclosure of this news, President Morales had no better explanation to offer than to claim that he was not aware of the incident. Such an explanation is all the more implausible, as the purpose of the official visit of Brazil's defense minister to Bolivia was to sustain discussions with the top echelons of the Bolivian government.
As the duplicity of Latin America's hard-left leaders reaches new highs, their credibility and moral authority attain new lows.
