President Evo Morales traveled to Bolivia after more than 13 hours waiting in Austria, where he arrived after Spain, Italy, Portugal, and France denied flight permission over their territories.
Before leaving Vienna, the president expressed gratitude for the solidarity of his Austrian peer Heinz Fischer, who visited him accompanied by representatives of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) at the Schwechat airport.
Morales’ departure took place a while after Madrid authorized the overfly and a stopover of the Bolivian presidential plane in Spanish soil.
That Iberian nation was the last to allow passage of the aircraft through its air space, and initially conditioned the authorization to an inspection of the cargo and crew.
The four European countries refused to give air permission after some rumors that former CIA agent Edward Snowden, pursued by Washington for leaking secret documents, traveled to Bolivia with Morales.
The cancellation of Morales’ flight permmission created a deep sense of unease in Latin America, where several presidents condemned what happened, and called a meeting of the Union of South American Nations to assess a common position on the incident.
In Bolivia, hundreds of people held vigils, while a ceremony to welcome Morales at the airport in the peripheral city of El Alto is planned for today.
UNASUR Mobilizes for Urgent Summit by Request of Ecuador
The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) is mobilizing today to defend its sovereignty and respect for the immunity of its heads of State, in an urgent meeting by request of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa.
Correa asserted that an urgent meeting of presidents has been requested to analyze the incident in which Bolivian President Evo Morales was involved, virtually kidnapped in Europe after his plane was banned from flying over the airspace of France, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
The Bolivian head of State’s return to his country was hindered by several member countries of the European Union, after he concluded an official visit to Russia, putting forward suspicion that CIA ex-agent Edward Snowden, who denounced a US world espionage network, was on board of his plane.
Correa warned that “what happened was extremely serious” and in his Twitter account, he said he had requested that Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, pro tempore president of UNASUR, call a summit of the continental authority.
Argentine President Cristina Kirchner also reacted: “What? Evo? Evo Morales detained? Definitvely all of them are crazy! He is a head of State and has total immunity. It can not be such degree of impunity.”
After a 14-hour delay, the Bolivian president was able to travel back to his nation, having gone through that humiliating European decision.
Cristina Fernandez: Evo Morales Detention in Europe is Humiliating
Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez today said that the detention of Bolivian President Evo Morales in Europe is a humiliating act, while expressing support for the summoning to an urgent meeting of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur).In a series of messages through Twitter early this morning, the head of State called the maneuver against her Bolivian peer ridiculous, while denouncing the incident and talking about her conversation with Evo Morales, to whom she expressed the Argentinian peoples total support.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan deputy to the Latin American Parliament Roy Daza, and the Communist Party of Chile have expressed their rejection to the various European nations decision to cancel the flight permit to Bolivian presidential airplane to fly over their territories.
The Venezuelan deputy called the action against Evo Morales an aggression against Latin America, while the Communist Party of Chile rejected the positions adopted by the French and Portuguese governments against the Bolivian head of State.
Bolivia At UN Condemns Attack Against President Morales
Bolivia denounced today at UN the unfriendly attitude and blatant aggression by France and Portugal by withdrawing without warning the overflight permissions of the plane carrying President Evo Morales.
The attitude of these two European countries is a violation of international conventions, undermining the lives and safety of a head of state, said the Bolivian official note distributed this Wednesday at the UN headquarters in New York.
That action forced the Bolivian presidential ship to make an emergency landing in Austria and a rescheduling of the flight plan of Morales return with consequent damage to the president’s inauguration, the statement said.
The government of Bolivia makes a complaint to the international community of an unfriendly attitude of blatant aggression by comunicating the no authorization of the presidential ship to fly over the air spaces of France and Portugal, emphasized the proclamation.
The president was traveling back to La Paz after participating in Moscow in the summit of the Forum of the Gas Exporting countries when authorities from France and Portugal cancelled the overfly premission previously granted to do it.
It is discriminatory and bullying behaviors generated from unfounded and malicious suspicions that the presidential aircraft would be carrying the U.S. citizen Edward Snowden, insisted the text circulated in UN.
For his part, the Permanent Representative of Bolivia to the United Nations offices in Geneva, Sacha Llorenti, announced today that it will present to the world body an official complaint against the attack on the president of the South American country.
Official Statement by Cuban Foreign Ministry
“A few hours ago, various European governments refused or withdrew, using the pretext of technical grounds, overflight or landing permits for the aircraft of President Evo Morales Ayma of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, which constitutes an inadmissible, unfounded and arbitrary act, an offense to all of Latin America and the Caribbean.
A few days ago, the United States threatened a sister nation, Ecuador, with coercive economic measures, which cannot be tolerated for any reason whatsoever, an act which damages all of Our America and deserves international repudiation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba is following with serious concern events of the last few weeks related to the significant denunciation of U.S. citizen Edward Snowden, confirming the operation of a global espionage system on the part of the government of the United States, in violation of the sovereignty of states and the rights of persons.
Cuba calls on the international community to mobilize against these violations of international law and human rights.”
Edited and compiled from several PL sources.