On the evening of July 2^nd, President Evo Morales was on his way back to Bolivia from a meeting of gas-producing countries in Moscow when his plane was denied entry into the airspace of France, Portugal, Spain and Italy, apparently under pressure from the United States which had (wrongly) presumed US whistle-blower Edward Snowden to be aboard.  On the morning of the 2^nd, Morales had stated in a TV interview that he would be ‘willing to consider’ a request for asylum by Snowden if one were received.  At that time the Bolivian government had received no request for asylum from Snowden.  The original flight plan of the presidential plane included refuelling stops in Lisbon and Guyana.  Instead, the plane made a diversion to Vienna where it remained for 13 hours before continuing on to Bolivia via Spain and Brazil. 

 

The decision to deny the presidential plane passage through European airspace has caused deep offence, not just in Bolivia but throughout Latin America.  Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca called the incident “an act of aggression”, and the Bolivian foreign ministry has officially denounced the countries involved for breaching international conventions.   In calling on the United Nations to condemn this, Sacha Llorenti, Bolivia’s ambassador at the United Nations, said he had “no doubt” that the order had come from the White House.  

 

Protests against the French move started no sooner that it had been announced that Morales had been diverted to Vienna having been barred entry by Paris.  Flags of both France and the European Union were burnt outside the French embassy in La Paz.  The demonstrations continued on both July 3rd and 4th.   Demonstrations have also taken place outside the US embassy in La Paz which, perhaps prudently, cancelled its July 4^th Independence Day celebrations.

Bolivia, along with Venezuela, received a pre-emptive request for the extradition of Edward Snowden to the USA on July 4th. The request was declined. Both countries, along with Nicaragua, have now offered Snowden asylum should he wish to take it up.

Speaking at a rally of social movements in Cochabamba the day after his return, Evo Morales said he was considering closing the US embassy in La Paz.  He said that Bolivia was better off “politically and economically” not having relations with the United States.  He accused Washington for having pressured the four European states to block access to their airspace.  He also said that European countries should liberate themselves from their dependence on Washington.   Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca later added that the Bolivian government would be ‘cautious’ in considering whether to close the US embassy.  The USA has not had an ambassador in Bolivia since 2008, when Philip Goldberg was ejected following accusations of collaboration with the opposition.  The Bolivian government also expelled USAID earlier this year (see previous BIF news briefing).

 

US State Department spokesperson Jennifer Psaki would neither confirm nor deny US involvement in the decision to close airspace, and said that questions about the plane diversion should be directed to the individual countries involved.  However, Austrian officials apparently told newspaper Die Presse that they had received phone calls from the USambassador to Austria with the intelligence that Snowden was on the presidential plane. This has not been confirmed.

The incident has several implications in Bolivia and abroad: