Unprecedented Diplomatic Isolation: Canada Ties Itself to Washington
Weekend Edition Aug 30-Sep 01, 2013
Unprecedented Diplomatic Isolation
Canada Ties Itself to Washington
by YVES ENGLER
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s recent mission to Latin America cannot mask Canada’s unprecedented diplomatic isolation in the hemisphere. Despite shifting ‘aid’ to the region and claiming to have made Latin America a priority, Ottawa is increasingly offside with a region breaking free from centuries of Western imperialism.
On July 9 the Organization of American States (OAS) held a meeting to discuss four European countries’ refusal to let Bolivia’s presidential plane enter their airspace. Six days earlier Evo Morales was returning from a meeting in Moscow where he said Bolivia could be open to giving political asylum to former CIA contractor Edward J. Snowden, who is wanted by Washington on espionage charges.
The US apparently suspected that Snowden, who was then stuck in the Moscow Airport, was on Morales’ plane. As such, the Obama administration pressed France, Portugal, Spain and Italy to block Morales’ plane in a bid to capture the whistleblower or to deliver a warning to other governments thinking about granting Snowden asylum.
Dubbed a “hostile act” by Bolivia, the OAS condemned the European countries’ “actions that violate the basic rules and principles of international law such as the inviolability of Heads of State.” All 34 OAS members backed the resolution except the US and Canada, which both added an appendix to the resolution saying they didn’t support it.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/30/canada-ties-itself-to-washington/