Bolivia demands return of senator who fled to Brazil

[Zorro]

Source: AFP

Bolivia's President Evo Morales demanded Wednesday the return of an opposition senator who escaped to Brazil after 15 months holed up in its embassy in La Paz.

Roger Pinto fled in an embassy vehicle under the escort of Brazilian marines last Friday, embarrassing President Dilma Rousseff, who has since replaced her foreign minister.

Morales called on Brazil to repatriate Pinto, who was sentenced to a year in prison in a corruption case.

"It is important to return Roger Pinto to Bolivian justice and that he be tried like anyone else in authority involved in corruption," Morales said in his first public remarks on the case.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/bolivia-demands-return-senator-fled-brazil-203950914.html

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I wonder what Dilma's response will be?

[Thinkingabout]

1. Well, this is a surprise Morales is thinking someone should be returned to Bolivia to face justice

for crimes they may have committed. He apparently did not feel the same about Snowden returning to the US to face justice for the wrong doing. Guess the story changes when he wants someone returned to his country.

[MyNameGoesHere]

2. You haven't a clue about Senor Roger Pinto Molina do you?

So someone awaiting trial for allegedly being involved in a massacre is comparable to Snowden? Weird fucking world we live in.

[Thinkingabout]

3. What difference does it make, the fact Morales is upset because he escaped and is not facing

justice in Bolivia is the point, Morales should not expect any country to honor any extradition since he intended to protect Snowden. It is the same story. Now Morales is on the other side.

[Recursion]

4. He's not on trial for Porvernir

He's on trial for selling public land too cheaply to a crony.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Sounds so simple when you explain it, doesn't it? Try bribery.

On edit, add running to Brazil 9 days before his hearing to avoid prosecution for his hideous corruption.

[7962]

7. Ha! "his hideous corruption"? He implicated high ranking officials to the drugs and pissed off Evo,

THATS his crime. They have charged him with everything from bribery to murder (even without a victim) to try to shut him up. The list goes on and on. Oh, and Bolivia had no problem forcing a search of a Brazilian AF plane looking for Pinto.
Pinto has provided info linking the Interior Minister to the drug trade, among others. He's had a hit put out on him. He even has a recording of a contract being put on his life. Etc Etc.
But Evo thinks Snowden is a great guy. Birds of a feather.

[Bacchus4.0]

9. Yep, thats why Brazil gave him asylum in the first place n/t

s

[Judi Lynn]

11. "Brazil" didn't. A diplomat did, who's gone now, with a furious President seething

over it. She has in no way backed this ugly idea, and has spoken strongly about it.

The Bolivian scum is allied with the right-wing fascists in Brazil, the same filth who were responsible for the military dictatorship in previous years, the same disease which tortured and murdered leftists, and imprisoned the brother of previous President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, and that President, and tortured and imprisoned the current President of Brazil.

[Tarheel_Dem]

5. You just can't make this shit up! Like you, I await Dilma's response.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Brazil admits infringing on Bolivian sovereignty in aiding senator's escape

Brazil admits infringing on Bolivian sovereignty in aiding senator's escape
English.news.cn 2013-08-29 07:43:04

BRASILIA, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- A top Brazilian official said on Wednesday that his country's role in helping a Bolivian senator escape justice infringed on its neighbor's sovereignty and caused "a great problem."

"You can't abet someone's departure from a country by damaging its sovereignty," said Gilberto Carvalho, minister of the general secretariat of the presidency. "You have the right to pressure, negotiate, discuss, but not to do that. The Brazilian government is really bothered" by the incident.

Bolivian senator Roger Pinto Molina, who had been holed up at Brazil's embassy in La Paz for 15 months in an attempt to seek asylum, was spirited out of the country over the weekend by Brazil 's charge d'affaires, Eduardo Saboia, who admitted to acting alone in planning and undertaking the getaway.

Bolivia has asked Brazil to hand over the fugitive senator. The incident led to the resignation of Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota.

The right-wing senator, who was convicted of defrauding the state of 1.7 million U.S. dollars and other corruption charges, first sought asylum at the Brazilian embassy on May 28, 2012, claiming he was a victim of political persecution by the leftist government. Brazil granted him asylum late last year.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-08/29/c_132671914.htm

[Judi Lynn]

10. Rousseff’s fury over Bolivian fugitive incident

Rousseff’s fury over Bolivian fugitive incident

Ambassador prompts presidential ire by comparing senator’s confinement to dictatorship prisons

Juan Arias Rio de Janeiro 28 AGO 2013 - 16:55 CET


Brazil President Dilma Rousseff is facing the need for a foreign policy overhaul after Brazilian diplomats in La Paz secretly helped a Bolivian senator escape to Brazil, drawing the ire of Bolivian authorities and criticism from the national media.

After dismissing Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota over the incident, even though he allegedly knew nothing of the affair, Rousseff broke her silence on Tuesday to criticize her ambassador to La Paz, Eduardo Saboia, who had Senator Roger Pinto Molina driven across the border in an official car in the middle of the night. Before that, Pinto Molina had been living inside the Brazilian Embassy for 15 months.

Bolivia considers Pinto Molina a criminal who faces 14 trials for a variety of offenses, including causing losses worth 1.7 million dollars to the state when he was a government official. The Brazilian opposition has long supported Pinto Molina, claiming he is the victim of an attack by the Bolivian government for publicly linking high-ranking officials with the drug trade.

Dilma Rousseff was especially irritated to hear Ambassador Saboia compare the senator’s situation at the embassy with that endured by prisoners during Brazil’s dictatorship (1964-1985). Saboia stated that it made him feel like one of the jailers of the regime.

“The first thing that a democratic, civilized state does is protect its allies,” said a visibly angry Rousseff at a press conference on Tuesday. “We are not in a state of exception. I was there at Doi-Codi (the prison run by the military dictatorship, where Rousseff herself was held between 1970 and 1972) and I know very well what it was like. Doi-Codi is as distant from the Brazilian Embassy in La Paz as heaven is from hell.”

More:
http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/08/28/inenglish/1377701587_606481.html