The Bolivian President, Evo Morales, was forced to redirect his plane home from Russia last night due to apparent suspicion it was carrying Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower. Morales had to make an unscheduled landing in Vienna, which his staff blamed on France and Portugal, who, the staff say, withdrew their permission for the plane to pass through their airspace.
Both Austrian and Bolivian officials say that Snowden was not, in fact, on the plane. The Bolivian foreign minister, David Choquehuanca, told reporters that “We don’t know who invented this lie. We want to denounce to the international community this injustice with the plane of President Evo Morales.”
The suspicion seems to have been based on comments Morales made on Monday, while attending an energy conference in Moscow. Asked on Russia Today if he would give asylum to Snowden, the New York Times reports that he responded, “Yes, why not? Of course, Bolivia is ready to take in people who denounce — I don’t know if this is espionage or monitoring. We are here.” He added that the country had not received a request for asylum.
Based on those fears, it appears that France and Portugal – as well as Spain and Italy, according to Bolivian defence minister Ruben Saavedra Soto – decided they were better off not getting involved, and refused the plane leave to fly through their airspace.
The fallout from the decision has been major. Morales was “kidnapped by imperialism”, in the words of Bolivia’s Vice President Alvaro Garcia; Argentine President Cristina Kirchner is tweeting regularly about the incident, saying “No se si ponerme a reír o llorar” (I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry); Kirchner also says she has spoken to Uruguay’s president, José Mujica, who is “indignado” (indignant) at the situation; and Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador, writes “Decisive hours for UNASUR! Either we graduated from the colonies, or we claim our independence, sovereignty and dignity. We are all Bolivia!”
Horas decisivas para UNASUR: o nos graduamos de colonias o reivindicamos nuestra independencia, soberanía y dignidad. ¡Todos somos Bolivia!
— Rafael Correa (@MashiRafael) July 3, 2013
The most important question remains unanswered, though: what was the extent of US involvement in the affront? Saavedra, Bolivia’s defence minister, thinks so, saying “This is a hostile act by the United States State Department which has used various European governments”. If it turns out that the American government did explicitly tell the European nations to ground Morales, that is a wound which will not heal quickly.
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