It is now not certain if the foreign ministers from the Organization of American States who are meeting in Washington on Friday will support the political asylum that Ecuador has granted to Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who has spent the last nine weeks in the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

The United States, Canada and Trinidad and Tobago have all questioned if the Assange case is relevant to the OAS, while 23 members of the organization have said they are in favor of holding the meeting.

All signs indicate that Ecuador President Rafael Correa has been not only courageous but also right to protect Assange from possible persecution for his part in releasing a trove of US diplomatic cables in 2010. They also suggest that the sexual assault charges that have been levied against Assange are a smoke screen meant to hide plans to extradite him to the US.