What exactly did Morales do?

[cthulu2016]

I see a lot of stuff about what a loser, liar, whiner and all-around d-bag Morales is, but I am puzzled what exactly it is he has DONE in the last few days to prompt such scorn.

Snowden was not on the plane.

Let that sink in. Snowden. Not on the plane.

So a head of state gets on his plane. In the air, flyin' back to his own country. And some bozo with Dick Cheney quality intelligence decides that Snowden is on the plane. Calls are made. International operational impediments are created that cause a head of state to have to land somewhere he was not planning to land.

Did you get the part about Snowden not being on the plane?

So what is it that Morales did here? Again, for folks just tuning in... Snowden was not on the plane. Is "failing to validate US intelligence assumptions" now a crime? I knew we killed all those people in Iraq for something, I just hadn't known the formal charge before. "How dare you not have what we thought you had?"

Is the problem that Morales complained about it? Why exactly would a complaint be out of line?

Here is what Morales was apparantly supposed to say, near as I can tell:

"A series of nations responded to a completely bogus US claim that Snowden was on my plane by fucking with the free movement of my plane, but I think they did the right thing because, hey, I'm a scumbag whose movements ought to be fucked with."

[struggle4progress]

1. What did Morales actually do? He left Moscow, without enough fuel to get to the Canary Islands,

which is where he supposedly intended to refuel, according to his flight plan. He assumed as President of Bolivia he'd be able to refuel in Lisbon, though the Lisbon airport had repeatedly told him they were having some problem that would prevent him refueling there, and although he'd filed a modified flight plan that showed he would simply overfly Portugal. When he got towards the Western side of Austria, he started asking for permission to refuel in Lisbon, citing some problem, and the Portuguese said, "Um, we've been over this before, sorry, no." So he turned back and told Vienna he was having some problem so he could land and refuel there. Vienna let him land and checked passports routinely. Then Morales cooked up a honker of a conspiracy theory to cover his mistake

[cthulu2016]

2. So it's all a hoax?

Never any attempt to curtail the plane's mobility out of suspicion Snowden was on board... just all a made up story?

[struggle4progress]

19. Nobody else is corroborating Bolivia's story:

Portugal says it never denied overflight permission

Spain says it never denied overflight permission

Italian says the request to Italy was no longer relevant once the plane was on the ground at Schwechat, which is easiest to understand as meaning Italy was studying an emergency landing request that became moot when the plane landed in Vienna

France says it authorized overflight but apologized for doing so rather slowly, explaining that it had been confused about how many planes were involved in the request: such confusion would be embarrassing but is consistent with Bolivia filing a revised flight plan before leaving Moscow, showing refueling in the Canary Islands instead of in Portugal, per discussions Monday with Portugal

[cali]

21. bullpucky and thumbs down for selective information presentation

<snip>

The foreign minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, said on Spanish National Television on Friday that "they told us that the information was clear, that he was inside".

The minister did not say who supplied the information and declined to say whether he had been in contact with the United States. But he said European countries' reactions were based on this information.

<snip>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/05/european-states-snowden-morales-plane-nsa

His plane was rerouted resulting in a search of it while on the ground in Austria

President Evo Morales warned on Thursday that he could close the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia, as South America's leftist leaders rallied to support him after his presidential plane was rerouted amid suspicions that NSA leaker Edward Snowden was on board.

Morales again blamed Washington for pressuring European countries to refuse to allow his plane to fly through their airspace on Tuesday, forcing it to land in Vienna, Austria, in what he called a violation of international law. He had been returning from a summit in Russia during which he had suggested he would be willing to consider a request from Snowden for asylum.

<snip>

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/07/05/south-american-leaders-back-morales/2490925/

And c'mon, do you really think that they would have landed in Austria if they hadn't been denied air space?

[struggle4progress]

22. (1) José Manuel García-Margallo said at the same time that Spain had never denied Bolivia

overflight permission and that Spain had no reason to apologize. This has not prevented Bolivia from claiming that Spain was part of a concerted effort to deny airspace to Bolivia:

Saturday, July 6, 2013
Bolivia to summon Spanish ambassador over plane spat
... Bolivia’s Foreign Ministry is expected to call Spanish ambassador to the Andean country requiring a report over the diplomatic spat ...

I notice that García-Margallo is not discussing Spain, whose behavior he regards as flawless: he is making claims about the alleged behavior of other countries. He is, of course, entitled to his views and opinions about what other countries actually did and why they did so, but his position doesn't necessary guarantee that he has detailed accurate knowledge about such matters; and the other countries seem to regard themselves as being just as innocent as Spain is in García-Margallo's view. There is, in addition, a somewhat confusing aspect of the García-Margallo quote "they told us that the information was clear, that he was inside" -- namely, that is it entirely unclear who "they" refers to, since "The minister did not say who supplied the information and declined to say whether he had been in contact with the United States"

[struggle4progress]

23. (2) If the Bolivian plane was low on fuel, they might indeed has sought landing in Austria

Audio purportedly from inside the cockpit of Bolivian President Evo Morales’s flight
By Max Fisher, Published: July 3, 2013 at 12:09 pm
... According to audio posted online and purportedly taken from the flight’s radio communications, the pilots called in to Vienna air traffic control to request permission to land, saying, “We need to land because we cannot get a correct indication of the fuel indication – we need to land” ... <T>he Bolivian narrative appears to be contradicted by European officials, some of whom have said Morales’s plane always had permission to enter their airspace. Just because the pilots may have stated one reason for landing does not necessarily exclude the possibility that they may have had other reasons as well, of course, nor does this on its own rule out Morales’s claims. But it certainly adds to the confusion of the incident and, at least, would seem to undercut any possibility that the flight was told to land. The radio communications between flights and air traffic controllers can be publicly accessed by anyone with an appropriate radio; aviation hobbyists, a sizable sub-culture, are often listening in ...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/07/03/audio-purportedly-from-inside-the-cockpit-of-bolivian-president-evo-moraless-flight/

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. "Some problem"?

Your conspiracy theory needs a bit more detail than that, if you're going to make the Portuguese look like anything other than douchebags. It's not as if Lisbon airport was closed. I suggest you make up something a bit more convincing before parading it before us.

In the real world, small jets get flight plans over friendly countries all the time, with no hassle at all. If there really is a 'technical problem', as the Portuguese lie put it, then they are told to go to a nearby airport instead. Portugal has several; so does Spain.

Nothing in the scenario you made up makes any sense, because EU countries just don't magically run out of the capability of accepting small jets, while at the same time servicing dozens of commercial airliners at the same airports. And all the other small jets would have been saying 'what the fuck? European infrastructure has just crashed'. The reason they were refusing refuelling was Snowden.

[struggle4progress]

15. Lisbon airport was affected by multiple strikes in June, including the General Strike on 27 June.

Recovery has sometimes been slow

... Friday, June 28 Today we learned Lisbon airport is still in a state of confusion ...
http://www.easytravelreport.com/AIRPORTS/Lisbon-Portela-Strike-Lisboa-Sacavem.html

Among the effects, the airport has sometimes recently actually run low on fuel as a result, as in this story from mid-June:

... "There are no (fuel) supplies for airplanes at Portela airport, only for emergency, military and state flights," the spokesman said ...
Lisbon airport runs out of fuel, blames strike
LISBON, June 11 | Wed Jun 11, 2008 4:33pm IST

I haven't followed this closely, but there seem to have been several strikes affecting the airport in the second half of June, and the combined effect might have produced a substantial backlog in routine operations orders, especially if the Portuguese are good about honoring picket lines. It might be natural for Portugal not to want to advertise such difficulties in detail. The Portuguese say that they informed Bolivia on Monday that landing at the Lisbon airport would impossible and that they went several rounds with the Bolivian on this, with the Bolivians continuing to insist on a landing in Lisbon, before Bolivia finally filed a flight plan overflying Portugal and refueling in the Canary Islands. Portugal says there was never any problem with overflight permission

[flamingdem]

30. Thanks!! Finally some information about the unspecified difficulty in Lisbon

great followup S4P

I had been reading about strife in Portugal and didn't connect the two

[Laughing Mirror]

31. Your story from "mid-June" is from June 11, 2008

Quite a story.

[struggle4progress]

32. Thanks: that was sloppy of me. Still, it shows that Lisbon Airport operations can be disrupted

for several days after a strike, which was the point

And the UK's travel advisory site has apparently removed some advice regarding the 27 June strike in Portugal but is still mentioning possible travel disruptions:

Foreign travel advice
Portugal
Summary Current travel advice
Summary
Still current at:
6 July 2013
Updated:
5 July 2013
Latest update: Summary - removal of advice relating to strike on 27 June; Local laws and customs - Gambling
A general strike has been called for 27 June. There may be disruption to travel and public services. Check with your travel company before you leave ...
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/portugal

[morningfog]

25. What was Protugal's "problem", exactly?

[struggle4progress]

27. See my #23 upthread for a possible explanation

#23

[HooptieWagon]

3. Hes guilty of LPWBOASC

Leftist Presidenting While Brown Of A Small Country. That makes him a target of US presidents and internet wanna-be bullies.

[newfie11]

6. +1

[Judi Lynn]

12. He's got his nerve, doesn't he? It really chapped the asses of the Bush League, apparently

it just doesn't set right with this administration, either, considering they have a lot of the same State people leftover from before, who hate his guts, and will never forgive his brownness.

They've been after him from BEFORE he was elected, and there's no way they're going to turn back ever until one way or another he's gone.

[leftstreet]

18. +1

[Scootaloo]

4. Well, he put this together...

Evo Morales: Ten commandments against capitalism, for life and humanity

1. IN POLITICS:
Refound democracy and politics, empowering the poor and serving the peoples

The world is experiencing a crisis of political systems because they no longer represent the peoples, they are elitist, exclusive, governed by oligarchical leaderships with the vision of filling the pockets of a few and not serving the people. The so-called democracies are the pretext for handing over the natural resources to transnational capital. In those false democracies, politics has been converted into an instrument for profit and not a vocation of service. Anachronistic forms of governments still survive that no longer respond to the demands of the world’s peoples. We must refound democracy. We do not want a colonial democracy in which the politicians are an aristocratic class and not militants in the cause of the poor and of service to the poor.

Democracy is not viable if it does not empower the poor, the marginalized, and does not respond first and foremost to the urgent needs of the neediest. A democracy in which a few become rich and the majority become poor is not a democracy.

Refounding democracy, refounding states, refounding republics and refounding politics requires the following actions, among others:

And more: http://climateandcapitalism.com/2013/01/15/evo-morales-ten-commandments-against-capitalism-for-life-and-humanity/

[DeSwiss]

8. And that has exactly what to do with him flying freely in his plane?

Under existing international laws?

Are his political opinions a rationale for impeding and restricitng his human rights?

I only ask because Morales is not an American.

- I know what the Executive Branch does to Americans whose opinions they don't like.




It's kids and babies.

[Scootaloo]

13. Nothing at all to do with him or his plane

Just putting it out there as something he did. And you know how leftist rhetoric is not at all tolerated on DU anymore!

[sibelian]

5. Because if the complaint ISN'T out of line...

Someone else looks a liiiiiiiiittle bit silly. Not to mention out of fucking control.

[Swagman]

7. he's guilty of being South American to start with and

complaining about the USA and obviously France is completely deluded when they apologized because it's all about not having enough fuel.

and don't forget Julian Assange is an egotist. (that has nothing to do with Morales but then either does re-fueling a plane)

[DeSwiss]

9. K&R

- These people you refer to, if you examine them closely you'll see that while their eyes appear to be open they are in fact asleep. And some seem to be actively trying to stay asleep.....

''The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.'' ~Morpheus

[magellan]

10. The problem is you're not filtering correctly

Dig it: Morales's crime was hiring a flight crew that didn't put enough fuel on the plane, and then getting the Austrians to cover for his silly pilot's mistake by asking to check his plane for Snowden, and then getting France and Spain to apologize for closing their airspace while simultaneously claiming they didn't and adding, "It's a darn good thing Snowden wasn't on that plane because we were told he was."

Morales is a very powerful man, you see.

[Babel_17]

14. lol

He needs to study the apology of the guy Cheney shot in the face.

[allin99]

17. lmao

[leftstreet]

20. LOL

[KittyWampus]

16. I don't think he's a d-bag. I think he may be using the incident to his favor. And why shouldn't he?

It's the smart thing to do.

Would be nice to have more details.

[BeyondGeography]

26. Yes, he's obviously a very able politician

Who has been heavily romanticized here.

[treestar]

24. Straw man

Nobody has insulted Evo - they have just commented on the incident.

[cthulu2016]

29. You will find the word "nobody" in the dictionary. Good day to you.

[Cleita]

28. He didn't do anything. He said he would consider giving Snowden asylum and that's what set

this clusterfuck in motion. Morales, like Hugo Chavez, defies USA hegemony in his country. That's why our press and government paint him like a douche bag. Why those European countries acted like they did when we screamed "jump" and they said "how high", I don't know. Maybe they felt obligated because they are our allies dating back from WWII. But the world and this country has changed a lot since then.