Not only was the legal aspect looked at but what could happen to Ecuador in the international standing with other nations in particular with the United States of America, and the United Kingdom. Further to this point what would the world think of Ecuador and would Ecuador retain respect around the world if they gave Julian Assange political asylum.
There was a big build-up days before as the Ecuadorian foreign ministry said they would have a press conference in Quito to announce to the world their decision on this case.
Few would have expected the thorough detail the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino went to in being very specific as to the history of Julian Assange's alleged charges over sexual misconduct in Sweden, to the day Julian Assange entered Ecuador's embassy in London on the 19th June 2012. Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino also made public a letter written by the British Foreign Ministry and delivered by the British embassy in Quito, which stated that if Ecuador grants Julian Assange political asylum then the British government would revoke Ecuador's embassy in London, as a building housing an embassy under the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987. Then once Ecuador's embassy building is no longer recognised as an embassy the British Metropolitan Police would storm the embassy and arrest Julian Assange.
The thought of a western power talking about storming an embassy didn't go down to well with Julian Assange and Wikileaks supporters around the world. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa was furious as was the Ecuadorian government, which sent out a clear message through the press conference the Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said, "It would harm relations between Ecuador and the United Kingdom!"
The British Foreign Minister William Hague tried to calm down the situation and said in front of a small gathering of journalists to down play the letter, and state the British police wouldn't storm the embassy to arrest Julian Assange.
In the meantime Ecuador feeling a bit isolated and wanting to throw some weight behind their decision of granting Julian Assange political asylum by convening a session with the Organisation of American States to get support from Latin American countries, while the U.S failed to show-up as they want Julian Assange extradited to the U.S for charges of treason over the leaks of American diplomatic cables and warfare video footage in Iraq.
Naturally favourite supporters of Ecuador including the anti-American and anti-West Populist Socialist President Hugo Chavez who funds and supports fellow presidents and governments of Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Cuba, which includes Ecuador with Venezuela's oil wealth, praised and embraced Ecuador's decision, while basically putting two fingers up at the United States, his arch-enemy since 2003.
Over the past eight years a rising anti-American and anti-West stance has been whipped-up amongst the population of the Latin American continent, excluding right leaning Colombia and Chile. So the Julian Assange case has caused these anti-West sentiments to rise to epic levels.
If Julian Assange does make it to Ecuador, he faces a society of armed criminal gangs who would like their day of infamy by kidnapping Julian Assange for a hefty ransom. America could do a CIA plot to arrest Julian Assange and smuggle him to the U.S to face treason charges in court over the diplomatic cable leaks.
Latin American politics can change very quickly and if the current President Rafael Correa gets voted-out and a more Western and American friendly president takes office he or she could revoke Julian Assange's political asylum status and then he'll be extradited to the United States.
So the future is a perilous one for Julian Assange whose mission is to hold to account the rich and the powerful whether individuals or nations, but it seems to have rebounded to him, very much to the detriment of Assange's survival.
Wikileaks as an organisation could become irrelevant and disappear from the public consciousness and Julian Assange could as an identity drift-off into the wilderness like so many before him.
Yes it's true to say, at the moment the story is Julian Assange not Wikileaks, or embarrassing the world's superpower America anymore.
The Great Mexican Standoff for now seems to be still in the twitching of fingers ready to draw the guns stage before we see who falls down.
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