Bolivian president's treatment stirs up fury in Latin America
Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay join in condemnation as Bolivia
denounces 'kidnap' of Evo Morales
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* Jonathan Watts in Rio de Janeiro
* The Guardian, Wednesday 3 July 2013 10.49 EDT
The Bolivian president, Evo Morales, in Vienna airport. Photograph: Helmut
Fohringer/AFP/Getty Images
Forced to land in Vienna, left waiting on the tarmac for and only allowed to
leave after half a day – the treatment of Evo Morales has stirred up fury in
Latin America, a region that has long bristled
at the bullying of the US and double standards of its former colonial
masters in Europe.
Bolivia has denounced what it calls a "kidnap" operation of its president by
imperial powers that violates the Vienna convention and its national
sovereignty. Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay have joined in the
condemnation. Angry headlines have been splashed on newspapers across the
region.
Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño Aroca, said his country would stand
with Bolivia. "We will not allow this affront against a Latin American
leader," he tweeted.
The secretary general of the Organisation of
American States, José Miguel Insulza, expressed his "profound
displeasure" with the countries who refused to allow Morales's plane
through their airspace.
"Nothing justifies an action as disrespectful to the highest authority of a
country," Insulza said in a statement.
Peru reportedly called for an emergency meetingon Wednesday of another
regional grouping, the Union of South American Nations (Unasur).
"Tomorrow is going to be a long and difficult day," tweeted the Argentinian
president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, on Tuesday night, saying the
level of impunity for Morales' treatment was unprecedented. Venezuela is
furious and the Uruguayan president, José Mujica, is said to be
indignant.
The United States has yet to comment, but the longer it remains silent, the
stronger suspicions will be that it leaned on
France, Spain, Portugal and Italy to deny permission for Morales's plane to fly
through their airspace, in effect putting the hunt for US
whistleblower Edward Snowden above international law and the rights of a
president of a sovereign nation.
Politicians and commentators in the region are already adding the action to a
long
list of interventions, invasions and "policing actions" by Latin
America's giant northern neighbour, alongside the Monroe Doctrine, the
annexation of half of Mexico, the Bay of Pigs invasion, support for
Chile's Augusto Pinochet and other dictators and the ousting of
democratically elected leftist governments in Guatemala, Nicaragua,
Honduras and elsewhere.
Europe has been accused of reopening
historical scars by abetting in the detention of Latin America's first
indigenous president.
"Just as they did 500 years ago, foreign
powers have once again mistreated and assaulted the Bolivian people,"
the country's vice-president, Álvaro García Linera, said.
Ecuador
was expected to provide further evidence of intrusiveness and
interference at a press conference later on Wednesday, when the foreign
minister said he would provide evidence of a bug that was discovered at its
London embassy, where the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been taking
refuge for a year.
Ecuador had also looked a likely destination for Snowden, though its president,
Rafael Correa, appears to have cooled on the idea in recent days. Many
attribute his change of tone to a phonecall from the US vice-president,
Joe Biden, which reportedly included a reminder that Ecuador uses the US dollar
as its currency. For some commentators, this was a veiled
threat.
Conscious of the growing importance of the Latino vote in
the US, the president, Barack Obama, has tried to bolster his reputation in the
region by making immigration reform one of the priorities of his second term.
But his secretary of state, John Kerry, upset many
in Latin America earlier this year, when he referred to the region as
the US "backyard" – a term that has long been seen as a sign of US
imperialistic tendencies. In response, Bolivia expelled USAid, a
development agency.
Spain, France, Portugal and Italy reportedly
denied permission for Morales's plane to fly through their airspace, in
effect forcing it to make an unscheduled stop in Vienna, where Austrian
authorities inspected the plane.
"So many beautiful masks fell. As always, in times of crisis you learn the
truth behind the speeches,"
tweeted Patiño. He then praised a comment about the solidarity of Latin
America, which has built closer regional ties in recent years. "Unasur
today must prove to the European Union the true meaning of Latin
American integration," he wrote.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/03/bolivian-president-morales-latin-america
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