The Bolivian government accused the U.S. of using its influence with European countries to deny Bolivian President Evo Morales military plane from flying over their air space to prevent whisleblower Snowden from being smuggled into Latin America.
By H. Nelson Goodson
July 4, 2013
La Paz, Bolivia - On Wednesday, the Bolivian government accused and condemn the Obama administration for using their influence to prevent European countries from allowing the Bolivian President Evo Morales from using their air space to travel back to Latin America from Russia. The obama administration believed that President Morales was attempting to smuggle whisleblower Edward J. Snowden out of Russia where he has been holdout in an airport while seeking asylum from multiple countries.
Austrian officials say, Snowden was not on President Morales plane, after they were allowed to inspect it. But, the Bolivian government confirmed that the Austrian officials were denied access to the Presidential plane due to diplomatic privilege.
The Bolivian Presidential plane was finally allowed to land in Vienna to refuel after France and Portugal refused to allow their air space to be use by Bolivia. More than a dozen Latin American countries are calling for a summit on Thursday in Bolivia to discuss the current international incident with Bolivia involving the U.S. and some European countries.
Officials from more than a dozen countries plan to file a complaint with the United Nations over the Bolivian air space ban in Europe.
The U.S. Embassy in La Paz suspended its celebration of the 4th of July, which was attributed to the latest Bolivian air space incident in Europe.
