He'd likely be a free man if he were in Croatia or Kazakhstan.
In small countries with no culture of westerners living there long term he'd stand out like a sore thumb. In dictatorial countries they'd think he was a CIA operative and be tailed. Oh, and upon capture he'd be beaten until he told them every little secret, bitcoin passwords included.
So good old USA was better and SF is probably the best way for a guy "acting weird" and staying online all the time to hide. He should have retired a year ago. It's a like playing in a casino, you're bound to lose long term
I think Ecuador still has extradition treaties with the US, the cases with Snowden and Assange are asylum cases which are regarded a little differently.
Your reply is downright silly and it seems youre someone who really doesn't travel much or know many people who do.
Not every place outside the USA is automatically a totalitarian, xenophobic shithole where foreigners are so rare that they get stared at on the streets and followed by secret police.
I happen to be from Croatia and currently live in a less then touristy part of central America and guess what? While us western white folks aren't exactly saturating the local landscape, there are more than enough travelers/students/business people from the US and other Anglo countries here long term for us not really get considered that big of a deal.
Same rules apply to many other places I've been. There's lots of travel happening in the world these days and foreigners in developing countries are hardly a big wonder.
Ulbricht could have easily moved to a dozen different countries in central america, south america or eastern europe and southeast asia and comfortably stayed anonymous in any of them.
In small countries with no culture of westerners living there long term he'd stand out like a sore thumb. In dictatorial countries they'd think he was a CIA operative and be tailed. Oh, and upon capture he'd be beaten until he told them every little secret, bitcoin passwords included.
So good old USA was better and SF is probably the best way for a guy "acting weird" and staying online all the time to hide. He should have retired a year ago. It's a like playing in a casino, you're bound to lose long term