Ecuador is facing U.S. pressure to reject the asylum bid of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. On Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, chair of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that welcoming Snowden “would severely jeopardize” U.S. trade preferences for Ecuador. Menendez said: “Our government will not reward countries for bad behavior.” Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, meanwhile says his government could take anywhere between a few days to a few months to decide on Snowden’s asylum bid. Snowden is believed to remain in a transit area of a Moscow airport. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Snowden has damaged the United States, and urged Russia to hand him over.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel: “I would hope that the Russians do the right thing here and turn Snowden over to the United States. General [Martin] Dempsey said, others, yes, there was damage done to this country by the Snowden leaks. And we are assessing that now, but, make no mistake, this violation of our laws was a serious security breach in our national security apparatus.”