Revealed: UK Campaign to Force Assange From Ecuadorian Embassy
April 28, 2021
A wide-ranging UK government campaign was brought to bear on Ecuador to
press it to hand over WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, new information by
Declassified UK reveals.
Prime minister Theresa May was told in March 2018 to butter up Ecuadors
president in order to get Assange out of Ecuadorian embassy in London
Later in the year, Mays government spent £20,000 to bring Ecuadorian
officials and defence minister to UK
British foreign minister arranged Daily Mail hit piece on WikiLeaks
publisher days after his eviction from the embassy
Same minister gave Ecuadors president a plate from Buckingham Palace gift
shop to say thank you for handing over Assange
National security adviser Richard Moore, now head of MI6, was in Ecuador two
weeks before Assange was expelled from embassy
By Matt Kennard
Declassified UK
The UK government paid £8,330 in November 2018 to bring Ecuadors defence
minister Oswaldo Jarrín to Britain, two months before the planned seizure of
Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, it can be revealed.
It is unusual for foreign ministers to have their trips to the UK paid by
the British government, and the week-long visit came after Prime Minister
Theresa May had been told to butter up Ecuadors president, Lenín Moreno,
in order to get Assange expelled from the embassy.
The new information comes from UK Foreign Office documents released to
Declassified, as well as the recently published diaries of former foreign
office minister, Sir Alan Duncan, who was a key player in the Assange
negotiations.
The documents note that the main objective of the November 2018 visit was
Jarríns participation at an annual national counter-terrorism exercise
that rehearses the governments response to a major terrorist attack.
The exercise is organised by the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism,
a part of the Home Office which oversees the Security Service [MI5] and
police counter-terrorism operations in the UK.
It is unclear why Ecuadors defence minister was chosen to attend a
counter-terrorism exercise as the South American nation is not a target of
terrorist groups.
The documents note that one of the main meetings was with then armed
forces minister Mark Lancaster, after which the Ministry of Defence reported
the two countries were strengthening our ties.
Jarrín also visited the Foreign Offices crisis centre and met with the
head of UK Export Finance, Louis Taylor.
Partner of Choice
British Armed Forces Minister Mark Lancaster (left) meets Ecuadors Defence
Minister, Oswaldo Jarrin, in the UK, 7 November 2018. (UK Ministry of
Defence / Twitter)
Two months before Jarríns visit, in September 2018, the UK government had
spent another £12,806 facilitating a three-day visit by Ecuadorian officials
concerned with fighting corruption and money laundering in the country.
The evaluation of the trip noted that it helped the UK government to build
strong relationships and that the UK was subsequently commended as a
partner of choice to President of the Republic [Lenín Moreno].
A Foreign Office spokesperson told Declassified: The Foreign Office
regularly arranges meetings with ministers and officials from other
countries to encourage closer engagement with our international partners and
help achieve our foreign policy objectives.
She added: As part of this work, some of the costs of these visits are
occasionally covered by the Department or by Posts. These are carefully
considered on a case by case basis, and only when resources are available.
British security officials also visited Ecuador in the build-up to Assanges
exit from the embassy, government records show.
In July 2018, Philip Barton, then director general of security at the
Foreign Office, flew to Ecuador for short notice bilateral meetings with
its foreign ministry. A week after his return he travelled to Cheltenham for
meetings at GCHQ, the UKs largest intelligence agency, government travel
logs show.
Then, two weeks before Assange was expelled from the embassy, on March 27,
2019, Britains then deputy national security adviser for intelligence,
Richard Moore, spent £4,469 on a business-class flight to Ecuador, the logs
show.
Moore was appointed chief of MI6, Britains external intelligence agency,
just over a year later. Barton now runs the Foreign Office.
Delayed Expulsion
The two British-funded trips for Ecuadorian officials came as the government
was ramping up efforts to get Ecuador to rescind the asylum it had granted
Assange in 2012 to avoid persecution by the U.S. government.
Until now, the nature of these negotiations has remained mostly secret, and
freedom of information requests relating to the Assange case and the role of
British ministers are routinely blocked.
But the diaries of Sir Alan Duncan, who led the Assange negotiations as UK
minister for the Americas, shed light on the pressure Britain brought to
bear on Ecuador after the new government of Lenín Moreno assumed power in
May 2017.
Moreno quickly undid most of the policies of his leftist predecessor Rafael
Correa and aligned himself with the U.S., signing deals with the
International Monetary Fund and making obvious his annoyance at Assanges
continued asylum at the countrys embassy in London.
In 2016, Duncan had met Correas foreign minister Guillaume Long who was
still committed to upholding Assanges right to asylum. An exasperated
Duncan lamented in his diaries that Long defends the supposed human rights
of Julian Assange.
But by March 2018, with the Moreno administration in place, Duncan was more
hopeful and had a one-on-one meeting with prime minister Theresa May where
he updated her on Ecuador and Assange. She might want to butter up
President Moreno, he wrote.
Two weeks later, he added: I think I am nearly there with Ecuador to get
Julian Assange out of their London embassy. Its taken months of delicate
negotiations, but nearly nearly
Six months later, in September 2018, Duncan had a call with Ecuadors new
foreign minister José Valencia. We both want Assange out of the embassy,
he wrote, but the Ecuador government wont quite yet take the necessary
final step for fear of the domestic reaction.
In the background, negotiations were clearly taking place which are not
mentioned in Duncans diaries. In October 2018, Duncan noted: The Assange
issue is progressing. Our channels into Ecuador are paving the way to a
solution.
Then, on Jan. 8, 2019, Duncan wrote: Annoyingly Assanges forcible exit
from the Ecuadorian embassy has been delayed. Ecuadors government lawyers
are now saying that it requires a Presidential decree which will take at
least a week or two.
Later on that day, Duncan went to the House of Commons to meet the new
Ecuadorian Ambassador Jaime Marchán-Romero. His principal mission is to get
Assange out of the embassy it has been six years and although he had
been aiming for tomorrow, as Id just learnt its going to take longer. A
tad frustrating, but well get there, Duncan wrote.
After this meeting, he updated then Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on the
situation.
Operation Pelican
Former Prime Minister Theresa May sitting between Father of the House Ken
Clarke (l) and former Minister of State Sir Alan Duncan (r). (©UK
Parliament/Jessica Taylor/ Stephen Pike/Flickr)
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Duncans annoyance that Ecuador had delayed expelling Assange increased the
following month when he wrote: Internal meeting on Ecuador, who have gone
quiet on pushing Assange out of the embassy despite saying it was going to
happen on 9 January.
He added: It looks as though their Foreign Minister had said it would
happen without explicitly telling the President. Assange is not mentally
stable; he has been defecating in wastepaper bins
It is a disgusting
situation. I insist we lay a clear paper trail tracking our constant demands
that he be evicted.
Soon after, he noted Ecuadors ambassador is determined to get Assange out
of his embassy, but President Moreno requires a final push in order to be
persuaded to press the button.
After another meeting with the ambassador a fortnight later, Duncan noted:
We are so nearly there in getting Assange chucked out of the embassy.
On April 11, 2019, the day Assange was finally seized by UK police, he
wrote: Suddenly its game on: Im told Assange will be sprung from the
[Ecuadorian] embassy today. So I drop everything and head to the Operations
Room at the top of the Foreign Office. Operation Pelican is go suitably
assisted by one official wearing a pelican-motif tie.
In the Operations Room, Duncan watched a live feed when at 10am plainclothes
policemen entered the embassy.
We were expecting Assange to be brought out very soon after their arrival,
but texts to the Ops Room revealed he had caused a bit of a commotion and
had been screaming and bawling while edging towards the Ambassadors office
at which point he was forcibly restrained.
He continued: Then, with military precision, six police officers marched up
to line up each side of the entrance steps, to form a protective corridor
through which Assange was bundled out at about 10.20am.
Duncan concluded: So, job done at last and we take a commemorative photo
of Team Pelican. It had taken many months of patient diplomatic negotiation,
and in the end it went off without a hitch. I do millions of interviews,
trying to keep the smirk off my face.
Aftermath
Assange being arrested and removed from Ecuadorian embassy, April 11. 2019.
(Ruptly)
Two days after Assanges eviction, on April 13, Duncan noted he had put
[Daily Mail journalist] Simon Walters in touch with Ambassador Marchán, thus
giving the Daily Mail their scoop about the fetid Assange hovel. The
pictures of his living conditions were beyond repulsive.
That day the Daily Mail ran a hit piece using photos from inside the embassy
with apparently incriminating photos of unwashed plates in the kitchen.
Revealed, full squalid horror that drove embassy finally to kick him out,
the subtitle read.
The article alleged that Assange left soiled underpants stuffed down the
lavatory in a fit of rage, but provided no evidence. Duncans allegations
about Assange defecating in wastepaper bins from two months before were not
included in the article.
Ten days later, Duncan met with Hugo Shorter, head of the Foreign Offices
Americas division. We are both still basking in the successful release of
Julian Assange, he noted.
Then in mid-June 2019, with Assange having been incarcerated in Belmarsh
maximum security prison for two months, Duncan put on a party. [S]traight
to drinks in my office for all the Operation Pelican team, those who worked
on the removal of Julian Assange from the Ecuador embassy, he wrote.
I gave them each a signed photo which we took in the Ops Room on the day,
with a caption saying Julian Assanges Special Brexit Team 11th April
2019.
Later on that month, Duncan went on an official trip to Quito, Ecuadors
capital city, for bilateral meetings with President Moreno, according to
government records. Duncans diary is empty for these days he was in
Ecuador.
But the final reference to Assange in his diaries comes two weeks later, on
July 15, 2019, when he is in Ecuador again for another meeting with
President Moreno.
Visiting him to say thank you is an essential conclusion to the Assange
episode and he exudes goodwill and warmth. He loves the UK, and I gave him a
beautiful porcelain plate from the Buckingham Palace gift shop. Job done,
he wrote.
Other UK officials were also re-engaging with Ecuador after Operation
Pelican was completed. In May 2019, the month after Ecuador had expelled
Assange, trade minister George Hollingbery flew to Quito to sign the
UK-Andean Countries Trade Agreement, according to UK government records.
Matt Kennard is head of investigations at Declassified UK, an investigative
journalism organisation that covers the UKs role in the world. Follow
Declassified on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
