Bolivia threatens to close U.S. embassy to protest presidential plane diversion

[struggle4progress]

Source: Miami Herald

BY JIM WYSS
[e-mail]

BOGOTA -- Bolivian President Evo Morales said Thursday he will study proposals to shut down the U.S. embassy amid growing anger after his airplane was diverted in Europe amid suspicions he was trying to smuggle NSA-leaker Edward Snowden off the continent ...

“We don’t need a U.S. embassy, we don’t need their pretexts of cooperation and diplomatic relations,” he told a crowd of supporters. “They conspire against us both inside and outside the country.”

The leaders of Venezuela, Ecuador and Argentina joined Morales in Cochabamba, Bolivia on Thursday. They were expected to produce a joint document to protest Morales’ treatment.

“Whoever messes with Bolivia messes with Venezuela,” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro told the crowds. He also said Morales’ plane had been flying on “emergency fuel” and that the diversion had put his life at risk ...

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/04/3485430/bolivia-threatens-to-close-us.html

[spooky3]

1. More irony...

...the more that the admin. attempts to bully certain nations, the more inclined their leaders will be to offer Snowden asylum, exactly the opposite outcome the admin. presumably desires.

[Dustlawyer]

6. 1984 = 2013!!!

[Towlie]

12. I wonder. Does the U.S. government REALLY want Snowden? Could it be that they don't?

[radhika]

16. I actually wonder if Snowden has already slipped to a new nation....

Under the cover of all this uproar.

[struggle4progress]

2. Cônsul de Portugal na Bolívia afasta hipótese de expulsão

Parlamento boliviano vai pedir que os diplomatas de Portugal, Itália e França sejam considerados "personae non gratee"
http://rr.sapo.pt/informacao_detalhe.aspx?fid=26&did=113399

The Consul of Portugal in La Paz .. George Albuquerque doubts <he will be expelled from the country>, arguing that he is only an honorary consul ... The diplomat says .. Portugal is represented in Bolivia by the Portuguese ambassador accredited in Lima ...The Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated overflight of national airspace was authorized but landing was forbidden due to technical considerations the Government has not clarified ...

[NoodleyAppendage]

3. Do it. How else will they learn? n/t

J

[struggle4progress]

4. Portugal "lamenta incómodo" causado a Evo Morales mas afasta responsabilidades

Alexandre Martins
03/07/2013 - 13:53
Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros cancelou aterragem e sobrevoo do avião do Presidente da Bolívia na segunda-feira "por considerações técnicas", mas voltou a autorizar sobrevoo no mesmo dia. Acusa Bolívia de insistir "num procedimento que teria violado a soberania portuguesa"
http://www.publico.pt/mundo/noticia/portugal-lamenta-incomodo-do-presidente-evo-morales-mas-nega-responsabilidades-1599129

... In a statement, the press office .. asserts the flight plan of the aircraft Falcon 900EX Bolivian Air Force was authorized by the Portuguese authorities on 28 June for a trip of President Evo Morales to Russia with stopovers in Lisbon for both trips -- La Paz / Moscow and Moscow / La Paz. This authorization was "canceled due to technical considerations" on Monday, July 1, one day before the return trip to Evo Morales to his country. "In response to the Bolivian authorities' request for clarification, received at 19h19 that day, they were informed at 21:10 that technical considerations did not preclude overflight of national airspace, and new authorization for overflight was expressly granted. Landing was impossible due to technical considerations ... Bolivian authorities continued to insist on landing in Lisbon" ... Bolivia submitted a new flight plan late Tuesday afternoon, with passage through Portuguese airspace and landing for refueling in Las Palmas, Spain ...

[Akoto]

5. And the embassies of those countries which actually did the hassling? n/t

[struggle4progress]

7. Bolivia llamará a diplomáticos de Portugal, Italia y Francia

Además, La Paz denunció el caso ante la ONU y el Alto Comisionado de DDHH
La Razón / Iván Paredes / La Paz
16:58 / 04 de julio de 2013
http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/Bolivia-diplomaticos-Portugal-Italia-Francia_0_1863413715.html

... the Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassadors of these three countries to explain why they denied overflight and landing privileges to the Bolivian presidential plane ... After the incident was reported, the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) in the Senate did not rule out the possibility that the Government of Bolivia might expelled diplomatic representatives of Spain, France, Italy and Portugal ... Morales said that in a telephone conversation his counterpart, Rafael Correa, communicated his intention to expel the ambassadors of France, Portugal and Italy in a show of solidarity ...

[struggle4progress]

8. La embajada de EEUU en Bolivia cancela la celebración oficial del 4 de julio

Fuentes de la embajada contactadas por Efe rechazaron precisar los motivos de la decisión, anunciada después de que países europeos negaran esta semana el sobrevuelo y aterrizaje al avión del presidente Evo Morales, por sospechas de que a bordo viajara Edward Snowden.
La Razòn Digital / EFE / La Paz
12:17 / 04 de julio de 2013
http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/embajada-EEUU-Bolivia-celebracion-oficial_0_1863413699.html

The U.S. Embassy in La Paz has decided to postpone the celebrations of July 4 .. the U.S. diplomatic mission reported in a brief statement. Embassy sources contacted by Efe declined to specify the reasons for the decision ...

[struggle4progress]

9. Morales deja España y vuela ya rumbo a Bolivia tras la polémica sobre Snowden

El avión ha tomado tierra a las 15:40 horas (hora insular) para repostar, después de que el Gobierno haya permitido que sobrevolara el espacio aéreo español
CADENA SER 03-07-2013

... Foreign Ministry sources have reported that the government had authorized both overflight Tuesday as well as the stopover in the airport of Gran Canaria, but "unexpectedly" Morales's plane landed in Vienna ...

[struggle4progress]

10. Morales: ´No basta la disculpa´

El gobernante llegó anoche a La Paz tras verse obligado a permanecer 13 horas en el aeropuerto de Viena
04.07.2013 | 19:10

Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, said that "the apology is not enough" ... His government claimed France, Portugal and Italy banned presidential plane overflight or landing ... Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela also claim Spain acted in the same way as France, Italy and Portugal, although the Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said that there was "no ban" ... Bolivia and the U.S. have no ambassadors since 2008, when Morales expelled the then ambassador in La Paz, Philip Goldberg, accusing him of conspiracies against his government. Washington in turn recalled the Bolivian ambassador. That same year U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was expelled from the Andean country, also for alleged conspiracy against Morales, and in May of this year the government announced the expulsion of the U.S. Agency for Cooperation (USAID) for the same reason ...

[JDPriestly]

21. Thanks for the translations.

The Spanish Foreign Minister is playing with diplomatese. The landing rights were not exactly denied, but were conditioned on permitting a search of Morales' plane -- to which Morales said no.

Morales insists that he never permitted a search and that the plane was never searched.

[struggle4progress]

11. Ancora sassi contro l'ambasciata francese in Bolivia

Redazione Online
5.07.2013, 05:20

About a hundred demonstrators gathered near the French Embassy in Bolivia to protest against the situation with the plane of President Evo Morales. Protesters burned flags of France and threw stones at the building, demanding the expulsion of the ambassador ...

[struggle4progress]

13. Bonino su Morales: noi non siamo dovuti intervenire

Il ministro degli Esteri è tornata sul caso Morales: con la negazione di sorvolo di Francia, Spagna e Portogallo è decaduta la richiesta rivolta all'Italia.
Desk3
giovedì 4 luglio 2013 19:32
http://www.globalist.it/Detail_News_Display?ID=46348&typeb=0

"Italy did not have to do anything" about the story of the plane of the Bolivian President Evo Morales, Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said, explaining that once the presidential aircraft landed in Vienna, there was "no longer had any request for overflight" addressed to Italy. Bonino told the united Commissions Constitutional Affairs, Foreign Affairs and Defense of the House and Senate .. that on June 29 Italy had granted the authorization to fly over our airspace ...

[Iliyah]

14. Close it!

[SoapBox]

18. Ditto!

...and NO MORE money!

[JDPriestly]

22. Bolivia does not need our money. We need its resources more than it needs our money.

We are no longer the only market with money to buy Bolivian products. We need to grow up and own up to what and who we are. We created this stupid world market. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

[JoePhilly]

15. Sounds like a great alternate ending to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

17. Viva Americo Latino! Stand up to the bullies. For too long, the US has tried to

bully and push around Latin America under the guise of a "good neighbor policy." Chavez taught you to stand up to the US Government. Do it!

Remember Salvador Allende and Victor Jara! That's what the American government thinks of Latin America. Remember Pinochet? That's that the American Government thinks about Latin American.

I am proud of Central and South America doing this. Our government needs to stop meddling in the affairs of countries in order to get what the American Government wants. It's called BULLYING!!!

[struggle4progress]

19. Mr Obama had barely celebrated his twelfth birthday when Mr Nixon's gang overthrew Allende

Your analyses are at best questionable, if you have difficulty distinguishing between Mr Obama and Mr Nixon,

[Nanjing to Seoul]

24. Enemies list and Domestic NSA spying as well as spying on allies

I see no difference. Now, accuse me being something like anti-Obama. No. I'm anti-wrong. When he's right, I support. When he's wrong, I don't. And his government is WRONG this time.

[geek tragedy]

20. The two nations are virtually enemies, so makes sense

to break off relations on both ends.

[freshwest]

23. What exactly do we buy from Bolivia, anyway?

The good old CIA World Fact Bookis the source for this Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Bolivia

Here's some more:

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35751.htm

Probably all needs to be updates. Reading both sources their main export appears at first glance to be coca and cocaine and over half the population lives in poverty.

[bemildred]

27. Lithium is the thing Bolivia has these days.

http://rt.com/business/bolivia-morales-russia-energy-investments-599/

[Forgot10Hiro]

25. I'm guessing that this doesn't qualify as part of Obama's plan to heal America's image abroad. NT

[Amonester]

26. Don't worry. Joe (Biden) will call them and everything will be fine.

Joe is an expert conciliator.

[EX500rider]

28. "He also said Morales’ plane had been flying on “emergency fuel”"

How does a plane with a range of 4500nm be low on fuel 900 miles from Moscow? (Moscow>Vienna)

Plus I could get to South America from Moscow without over flying any of those countries. South to Africa then over...heck even east and island hop over the pacific.