Julian Assange was Ecuador’s guest of honor. Until he wore out his welcome.

Ecuador treated Julian Assange like a trophy in 2012 when it opened the doors of its London embassy to the WikiLeaks founder, sheltering him from extradition to Sweden over rape allegations and, possibly, to the United States.

The Washington Post - Nick Miroff 20/10/2016

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange steps out on the balcony of the Ecuadoran Embassy to address the media in London in February. (Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)

Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s leftist president, seemed to bask in Assange’s bad-boy glow, which gave the small South American nation a big role in a global drama. Protecting the WikiLeaks editor also gave Correa a way to poke Washington in the eye and look like a champion for press freedom even as he cracked down on journalists back home.

Correa embraced Assange’s mother at the presidential palace in Quito, Ecuador's capital, and championed the Australian “hacktivist” as an anti-imperialist comrade-in-arms.

Now he's treating Assange like a bad tenant who won’t leave.

On Tuesday, Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that it was giving Assange the equivalent of a timeout by cutting off his Web access. The release by WikiLeaks of Hillary Clinton staffers’ hacked emails was having a “major impact” on the U.S. presidential race, the ministry said in a statement.

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