Venezuelan Government: Serious Abuse Barring Evo Morales Flight over Snowden Suspicion
Jul 3rd 2013, by Tamara Pearson [image: Bolivian president Evo Morales in his plane (agencies)] Bolivian president Evo Morales in his plane (agencies) Mérida, 3rd July 2013 (Venezuelanalysis.com) Its an abuse to have put Evo Morales life in danger, said Venezuelas foreign minister, Elias Jaua, after the Bolivian presidents flight was forced to perform an emergency landing in Austria. Morales had been in Russia with Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, attending the second summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF). Maduro and Jaua are now in Belarus for bilateral talks, while Morales tried to return to Bolivia. However France, Spain, Italy and Portugal barred his flight from entering their airspace, causing his plane to land in Vienna, Austria. The countries claimed they suspected whistleblower Edward Snowden was on board the presidential plane. However, Austrian authorities searched the plane, and found no stowaways on board, and the Morales plane will now continue on its way. Snowden had requested asylum from Bolivia, among other countries. Talking via telephone to Telesur from Belarus, Jaua stated, We call on all countries, above all those in Latin America and the Caribbean... to make declarations regarding this abuse. The least important thing is if Snowden was on board or not, were talking about a presidential plan, with special licenses...Portugal and France should take responsibility [for their actions], he said, calling it a real violation of all the norms of ...immunity of a president of a republic and of the sovereignty of countries and of official flights. In the conversation, Jaua primarily blamed the United States government for the incident. The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela would like to express that we hold the United States government, and all the governments who have denied flight permission to the presidential plane of brother president Evo Morales accountable, for the life of president Evo Morales, for his dignity as president, he said. He also said the incident aimed to hunt down Snowden, who is facing an empire which tries to control the world. President Morales also told press at the Vienna airport that he was not a criminal and reminded European countries that we are no longer in the colonial period. He reiterated Jauas comments that France, Spain and Portugal explain to the world the reasons behind this delay and said their actions were indicative of the repressive policies of some European countries. Argentine president Cristina Kirchner also called the situation madness...the head of state and his plane have total immunity, and the Cuban government said the detention of Morales was an unacceptable and unjustifiable act that offends Latin America and the Caribbean. Maduro also expressed his solidarity with Morales via his Twitter account, saying from Venezuela we will respond to this dangerous, disproportionate and unacceptable aggression...I am in contact with Evo, they have violated all the international immunities that protect heads of state, because of the imperial obsession. ------------------------------ *Source URL (retrieved on 03/07/2013 - 9:47am):* http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/9798 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
