Friday, July 5, 2013

Snowden'a ayslum options - While Iceland said no for now , Nicaragua and Venezuela say yes - Can Bolivia be far behind at this point ? Blowback for the " Imperial hijack " ?

Blowback for the imperial hijacking ? Blowback from Venezuela for prior US actions ?

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/07/19333719-venezuela-snowden-has-until-monday-to-respond-to-asylum-offer?lite


Venezuelan officials say they have not heard from Edward Snowden since the country offered the professed NSA leaker asylum, but would wait until Monday to hear if he would take up the offer. 
“There has not been any type of communication,'' Foreign Minster Elias Jaua said on state television late on Saturday. “We are waiting until Monday to know whether he confirms his wish to take asylum in Venezuela.”
News of the apparent deadline followed the announcement by the president of Bolivia that it was joining Venezuela and Nicaragua in indicating that they would offer asylum to fugitive, who is believed to be hiding inside the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport as the United States continues efforts to have him extradited.
Bolivia’s Evo Morales made his offer Saturday, three days after a plane carrying the leftist leader over Europe was rerouted amid reports that Snowden was aboard. The change in flight plan set off a diplomatic storm that heightened tensions between the United States and the South American nation.
President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela both condemned the U.S. spy programs that Snowden revealed and said he deserved protection.
“Who is the guilty one? A young man ... who denounces war plans, or the U.S. government which launches bombs and arms the terrorist Syrian opposition against the people and legitimate President Bashar al-Assad?'' Maduro asked, to applause and cheers from military officers at a parade on Saturday. 
Venezuela "decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young American Edward Snowden" so he can live without "persecution from the empire," Maduro said, referring to the U.S. He extended the invitation to Snowden during a speech Friday commemorating the anniversary of Venezuela's independence, according to the Associated Press.
Since winning a presidential vote in April that followed leader Hugo Chavez's death from cancer, Maduro has often criticized the United States, and accused it of plotting to kill him.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers told CNN on Sunday that he “absolutely” thinks one of the South American countries will provide Snowden with travel documents.
Rogers (R-MI) said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the U.S. should “send a very clear message” to the nations offering Snowden asylum “that we won’t put up with this kind of behavior.”
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey told CNN on Sunday that Snowden’s revelations have hurt U.S. diplomatic relationships and “the importance of trust.”











http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/world/europe/russian-official-says-venezuela-is-the-best-solution-for-snowden.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0


Russian Official Says Venezuela Is the ‘Best Solution’ for Snowden


By  and 

Published: July 6, 2013
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • GOOGLE+
  • SAVE
  • E-MAIL
  • SHARE
  • PRINT
  • REPRINTS

MOSCOW — A senior member of the Russian Parliament said Saturday that political asylum in Venezuela would be “the best solution” for Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who is on the run from the American authorities.
Enlarge This Image
The Guardian, via Reuters
Edward J. Snowden remained at a Moscow airport on Saturday.

Related

Related in Opinion

World Twitter Logo.

Connect With Us on Twitter

Follow@nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines.
Twitter List: Reporters and Editors
Enlarge This Image
Ivan Sekretarev/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela was among those warned by the United States not to aid Snowden's flight.
Enlarge This Image
Helmut Fohringer/European Pressphoto Agency
President Evo Morales of Bolivia said that his country would grant Mr. Snowden asylum “if he asked for it.”
The comments by the Russian lawmaker, Aleksei Pushkov, the chairman of the international affairs committee of the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, came just a few hours after Venezuela andNicaragua extended the first firm offers of asylum to Mr. Snowden, who has been holed up at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow for nearly two weeks, and they seemed to reflect the Kremlin’s increasing desire to be rid of him.
“Sanctuary for Snowden in Venezuela would be the best solution,” Mr. Pushkov posted on Twitter. “The country has a sharp conflict with the United States. It will not be worse. And he can’t live in Sheremetyevo.”
In fact, the United States and Venezuela recently began talks toward reconciliation, progress that a senior Obama administration official said Saturday would end if Venezuela sheltered Mr. Snowden, as President Nicolás Maduro said he would, or aided his journey. The official cautioned other nations in Latin America, hinting that relations would worsen if they assisted Mr. Snowden.
Mr. Pushkov’s comments typically echo the Kremlin’s line and, to that extent, they underscore a crucial point: Russiastill has no intention of turning Mr. Snowden over to the United States or impeding his travel to any country willing to shelter him.
In fact, far more powerful Russian officials, including President Vladimir V. Putin, have suggested that there is no set limit on the amount of time Mr. Snowden can remain in his traveler’s purgatory in the transit zone of the airport, where technically, they say, he has not crossed onto Russia territory. But Mr. Putin has also said that the sooner Mr. Snowden picks a destination and leaves, the better.
Still, even as the asylum offers from Venezuela and Nicaragua suggested that Mr. Snowden’s sojourn in Russia might be nearing its end, getting to his final destination will not be easy.
Mr. Snowden and his supporters at WikiLeaks, the antisecrecy group, are now contemplating complications for a more than 6,000 mile flight that are of a magnitude unfathomable to even the most experienced frequent fliers.
The easiest route to Latin America from Moscow would take Mr. Snowden first to Havana, where he could then connect to direct flights either to Caracas, Venezuela, or Managua, Nicaragua. But if he purchases a ticket for a regularly scheduled flight on Aeroflot, the Russian carrier, which Mr. Putin has said Mr. Snowden is free to do at any time, would the United States go so far as to force down a commercial jetliner once it crosses into American airspace, which is part of its normal flight path? And even if the Americans are loath to force down a passenger jet, would Cuba, given a mild thaw in relations with the United States, allow Mr. Snowden to pass through Havana?
If Mr. Snowden and his supporters try to arrange for a private jet, could his benefactors afford one big enough to make the nearly 16-hour flight without refueling, to avoid stopping in a country that would be likely to seize him at the request of the United States? And if a private or government plane is sent to pick him up, would it face the same airspace restrictions that forced the plane of President Evo Morales of Bolivia to land in Vienna on his way home from a conference in Moscow last week?
Mr. Morales, still fuming over the diversion of his aircraft, said Saturday that Bolivia would also grant Mr. Snowden asylum “if he asked for it.” Mr. Morales, whose openness to sheltering Mr. Snowden apparently led to the false conclusion that he had smuggled Mr. Snowden onto his airplane, said the decision on asylum was now intended as retaliation.
“As a fair protest” against the United States and Europe, “we are going to give him asylum if he asks us for it, that American pursued by his countrymen,” Mr. Morales said at a public appearance in a Bolivian village, according to local news reports. “We are not afraid.”
Mr. Morales did not say if Bolivia had received a request from Mr. Snowden, who has apparently applied for shelter in more than two dozen countries. Most of those requests have been rejected. Nicaragua’s president said his country had received a request and would grant it “if circumstances permit it.”
State Department officials have been in touch with each of the Latin American nations that have expressed a willingness to harbor Mr. Snowden, the senior administration official said Saturday, and have urged them to expel him if he arrives. But the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk about diplomatic matters, conceded that the United States already had poor relations with these countries, and while those ties would worsen should Mr. Snowden receive protection, it remained unclear what the United States would do.
“There is not a country in the hemisphere whose government does not understand our position at this point,” the official said, adding that any aid for Mr. Snowden “would put relations in a very bad place for a long time to come.” The official added, “If someone thinks things would go away, it won’t be the case.”
The United States said that the diversion of Mr. Morales’s plane was “unfortunate.” But there was a much stronger reaction in Russia, where Mr. Putin often makes a point of demanding respect for state sovereignty. The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the European countries that barred Mr. Morales from traveling through their airspace.
Aeroflot’s regular flight to Havana departed Saturday on schedule at 2:05 p.m., and Mr. Snowden was not on board. And, as has been the case since he arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong 13 days ago, there was not a trace of him at the airport. Russian officials have declined to say whether he is holed up in one of the hotels that serve transit passengers or has been staying in some hidden section of the airport.
Cuba has not said how it might react if Mr. Snowden arrives in Havana for a connecting flight to Caracas or Managua. It could follow Russia’s lead and treat him as a transit passenger who has technically not crossed onto Cuban territory. But American officials have made clear that they view that as a mere technicality and have urged any government with access to seize him and send him back to the United States.
Mr. Pushkov suggested that the United States was paying a price for its arrogance. “The Snowden case argues that the U.S. attempt to bring the world under the electronic and military-political control is doomed,” he wrote on Twitter. “Action gives rise to reaction.”













And a totally gratuitous offering from Blush lingerie.....


11:57 GMT: German Blush lingerie brand has decided to take advantage of the hype surrounding Edward Snowden, issuing a series of ads in which the whistleblower is mentioned. In one of them, the company offers him asylum in Berlin, promising that a “bed and champagne” is waiting for the NSA leaker upon arrival. Another ad features the slogan “Dear Edward Snowden, there’s still a lot to uncover" next to a female model in sexy underwear.

"We highly sympathize with what Snowden did," said Johannes Krempl, director of Glow Advertising agency. "We owe him so much, and that's why we thought we have to do something to express our feelings towards him and thank him, and that's why we came up with this ad for Blush in support of his deeds." 



By the way , just where is Mr Snowden anyway.... just asking ?



http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-06/desperately-seeking-snowden-where-russian-airport-fugitive-whistleblower

( Anyone other than yours truly think that it's odd that Snowden has yet to actually be observed at / in the rusia Airport terminal ? )


Desperately Seeking Snowden: Where In The Russian Airport Is The Fugitive Whistleblower?

Tyler Durden's picture
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/06/2013 11:02 -0400



Yesterday, infamous whistleblower Edward Snowden, stuck nearly two weeks in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, finally got some good news: first Nicaragua, then Venezuela (and moments ago Bolivia) broke the rejection letter trend, and in bombastic and very political fashion, offered him asylum (although as with everything in politics nothing is concluded until he is actually on some Latin American beach). However, a question remains:just where is Snowden right now? After all, following his initial public appearance and video with the Guardian and WaPo, there have been virtually no public sightings of him, despite his current location in one of the most public venues in the world: the Moscow airport.
Reuters wonders how this is possible: "The former U.S. spy agency contractor has managed to stay out of sight for two weeks since arriving from Hong Kong on June 23, hoping to fly on to a country that would not send him back to the United States to face espionage charges. The hordes of reporters who for days camped out in the hope of finding him have long since packed up and left. These days Snowden just provides sport for bored passengers trying to spot him as they while away the hours waiting for connecting flights."
Some are amazed he has managed to stay there for 2 weeks:
"I offered my kids $200 to get a picture of him," Simon Parry, a Briton, said as he waited in the interconnected transit area between terminals D, E and F, a maze of corridors, lounges, fast food restaurants and duty free shops."

"The wireless Internet is appalling, the prices are awful, and people never smile. So I commend him for making it 24 hours, let alone two weeks. I might rather face trial," Parry said, sitting with his family at a Burger King outlet in Terminal E."
Nonetheless, there are many options on how to spend one's time:
Could he have been tempted to emerge from hiding to grab a burger, to buy some of the tacky Soviet memorabilia in the duty-free stores, or the diamond-encrusted handbags on sale nearby?

Has he ventured out to admire the displays of red, green and blue Faberge eggs selling for 1,000 euros each, or browsed the 200 euro sunglasses, perhaps to improve his disguise?

Where he has been washing is also not clear, although some toilets and showers dot the transit area. Sleeping cannot have been easy - the hum of vacuum cleaners punctuates the night.

Food in transit area restaurants could be brought to Snowden, even if he dare not venture out himself. He could by now have exhausted the menu at Russian diners like Mama Russia, which offers blinis, red caviar and cabbage soup, or at the two T.G.I. Friday's restaurants offering more international fare.

Olga Samsonova, who has worked as a waitress for 18 years at Sheremetyevo, says the airport food is costly and that Snowden may have turned to handouts from Russian airline Aeroflot.

"That's where he's got his food from. I can't say much about what it tastes like but it's nutritional, more or less. And they give you yogurt for breakfast," she said.

She had seen dozens of people - mostly asylum seekers - take up temporary residence at the airport in the time she has worked there, including an Iranian woman who spent nearly a year in the airport with her children before receiving asylum in Canada.

"At least there are lots of places to sit down," she said, standing over stewed vegetables for sale under the fluorescent lights of Terminal F, built for the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Still, just where is he in the Moscow labyrinth that is a flashback to the eponymous Tom Hanks movie?
[Snowden] has made himself lost for nearly 12 days in a mile-long transit corridor dotted with six VIP lounges, a 66-room capsule hotel, assorted coffee shops, a Burger King and about 20 duty-free shops selling Jack Daniel’s, Cuban rum, Russian vodka and red caviar that costs four times as much as it does in the city.
Unless he’s across the runway in private Terminal A, in the watchful company of Russian officials.
Everybody wants to find him. Journalists want to interview him. The United States wants to prosecute him. And now Anna Chapman wants to marry him.
He has made himself lost for nearly 12 days in a mile-long transit corridor dotted with six VIP lounges, a 66-room capsule hotel, assorted coffee shops, a Burger King and about 20 duty-free shops selling Jack Daniel’s, Cuban rum, Russian vodka and red caviar that costs four times as much as it does in the city.
Thursday was a quiet day at Sheremetyevo but a normal one, with the packs of journalists tiring of the unrequited chase. Athletic teams from Mongolia and China made their way through the airport en route to university games in Kazan. Families with young children waited for flights to summer resorts.
Anastasia Shodieva was selling costume jewelry and stuffed animals at a souvenir stand near the Skoda car display, where the journalists camped out last week. When asked about Snowden, she had to be prompted.
“Oh, that sort-of agent?” she asked, adding that the affair made no difference to her.
The transit zone
The United States wants Snowden on charges of theft and disclosing classified information in violation of the Espionage Act. Scores of journalists were waiting when his flight from Hong Kong landed June 23 in Terminal F. No sign of him. Others filled seats on Aeroflot to Havana — airport officials said Snowden had a ticket for June 24 — and flew off, taking pictures of his empty seat.
The airport’s half-dozen buildings cover an area as big as about 100 football fields, set off a traffic-clogged road 18 miles from the city center. A transit zone, about a mile long, wends its way along the sides of terminals D, E and F, which are connected by a walkway so arriving passengers can board connecting international flights without having to pass through passport control and customs, which requires a visa.
Terminal D, the most modern part, has soaring ceilings and a men’s room with an age-old smell to it. Tatyana Yudina, at the register of a traditional, lacquered-wood crafts souvenir stand, shrugged at the name “Snowden.”
Last week, journalists staked out a chain called Shokoladnitsa, hoping they would find Snowden drinking a $7 cappuccino or an $11 nonalcoholic mojito with $9 blini and red caviar. Nyet.
The capsule hotel rents tiny rooms for about $15 an hour, with a four-hour minimum. No one was spotted going in and out Thursday, and the clerk on duty frostily declared that she wasn’t allowed to talk with reporters.
An odd choice
Russians are a little bemused at all that fuss over surveillance. Many believe that the authorities can read their mail at will, listen in on their calls and sprinkle bugs around as they please.
“Wiretapping is so common, so this is not news,” said Alina Gorchakova, a 48-year-old account manager who stopped to chat on a city street.
What doesn’t seem normal to many is why Snowden decided to go to Ecuador, his original destination, through Russia. Once he arrived here, with his U.S. passport revoked, Ecuador has grown less enthusiastic. Russia says he can go anywhere he likes — he just needs a destination and authorized travel documents. So why doesn’t he go? Or show his face?
And Svetlana Chibisova, a 45-year-old tour agency manager, found it strange that an American carrying U.S. secrets would travel by way of Russia, where security agencies are very much in control.
“I don’t understand what he was thinking,” she said. “Is he a little boy with no idea about the consequences?”
Olga Prokopenko, 40, deputy director of a pharmaceutical company, said the Snowden affair sounded like a fairy tale. “How long will he have to stay in the transit zone? What is he eating there, and where does he sleep? Has anyone seen him at all? Strange.”
“I really wish he could be in some other transit zone,” she said, “because you never know what our authorities will do.”
Often, the television news doesn’t add up, said Yuri Artemiev, a 73-year-old retired aviation engineer.
“I don’t like this situation,” he said. “It looks like they wanted to get benefits from him being here and then something went wrong — as always.”
Snowden has become something of a ghost, said Igor Pavlenko, a 37-year-old sales manager.
“I am not at all sure that we are being told everything,” he said. “For example, as far as I know, he is in Sheremetyevo now. Okay, but maybe this is just one version. Have they shown us video or pictures of him in Sheremetyevo? No!”





: Bolivia's Morales offers asylum to US leaker Snowden






Venezuela’s Maduro: Unlike US Asylees, Snowden didn’t Blow anything Up, just said ‘This is not Right’

Posted on 07/06/2013 by Juan Cole
Globovision reports that President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela on Friday offered asylum to US leaker Edward Snowden, in order, he said, to protect him from “imperial North American persecution,” describing the US government as among the “most oppressive in the world.” He said he hoped Snowden would be able to live “quietly in the free country of Bolívar and Chávez.”
Maduro made the statement on Venezuela’s Independence Day, commemorating that country’s July 5, 1811 declaration of independence. A week and a half ago, Maduro had complained that the US routinely grants asylum to right wing Venezuelans who were guilty of terrorism and killings, and that it was a small thing to give asylum to someone who merely blew the whistle on government surveillance. Maduro pointed to the US allowing Luis Posada Carriles to live freely in Miami, even though he blew up a plane with 73 persons aboard and thereby nearly killed prominent American journalist Stephen Kinzer. It is thought that the US government protects Posada Cariles because he had worked for the CIA and could reveal many unsavory secrets if he were extradited abroad.
Maduro signaled that several Latin American leaders had showed a determination to adopt the same position as his own. Indeed, soon after his own announcement, Nicaragu’s Daniel Ortega said he would welcome Snowden “with great pleasure” if circumstances permitted. The US U.S. Marines occupied Nicaragua for most of the period from 1912 to 1933 and Washington later supported the Samoza dictatorship against which Ortega and the Sandinistas rebelled. In the 1980s, US President Ronald Reagan funded “contra” death squads to kill the Sandinistas, but lost. (Reagan got funding for the Contras from Saudi Arabia and from secretly stealing weaponry from the Pentagon warehouses and selling it under the table to Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, whom Reagan had designated a terrorist).
One of the things that appears to have pushed Maduro into making a final and open decision on the matter was the denial overflight rights to Bolivian president Evo Morales by several Western European countries on Tuesday, apparently because of US pressure. Washington suspected that Snowden might be on the Bolivian Air Force jet. Morales was returning from energy talks in Moscow. Morales was forced to divert to Vienna, where Austrian authorities allegedly asked permission to search the plane but were refused. France’s Francois Hollande later explained that his country had not known the plane was Morales’s. Six of the Latin American leaders were furious at this treatment of one of their own. Maduro called the diversion of Morales’s plane an “act of aggression” and said he had evidence that European airspace was closed to the Bolivian president by the US Central Intelligence Agency.
The USG Open Source Center paraphrased from the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s comments of last week, which telegraphed his decision (I added the hyperlinks to further identify the individuals to whom the US government has granted asylum, one of whom blew up an airplane with 73 people aboard, and two others who set off bombs at the Colombian and Spanish embassies in Caracas):
“Caracas Radio Nacional de Venezuela Online on 26 June reports that President Maduro criticized that the US Government demands that other governments deny political asylum to former national security expert Edward Snowden despite protecting terrorists such as Luis Posada Carriles.
He also rejected that “the United States has granted political asylum to several former Venezuelan military officers who, led by fascist groups, set off bombs at the Colombian Embassy and the Spanish Consulate and who live in Miami with the protection of the US Government.
The United States granted political asylum to an unsavory character named Eligio Cedeno, who launders drug money and was tried in Venezuela on this charge. He has also received protection.”
He condemned that the US Government is demanding Snowden’s arrest and extradition. He added: “This 29-year-old man has not set off bombs, murdered anyone or stolen anything. All he did was look at himself in the mirror one day and say to himself: ‘What I am doing to the world? This is not right’ He rebelled. He (Snowden) belongs to a great rebellion of US youths that is under way, the rebellion of consciences, (and) the rebellion of principles.”
He reiterated that the United States “spies on the entire world,” which “violates the international laws of self-determination (and) sovereignty.” He expressed confidence that “80 percent” of Venezuelans would agree with granting asylum to Snowden, which is “a deeply humane position.”
In a related report, Caracas El Universal Online on 27 June cites Maduro reiterating that if Snowden filed for political asylum, “we would consider (his request) and most likely would approve it.” He commented: “Apparently, Ecuador has received a formal request from them and is considering it.”









http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-05/nicaragua-offers-edward-snowden-asylum


Nicaragua Offers Edward Snowden Asylum, Venezuela Promptly Follows

Tyler Durden's picture
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/05/2013 20:27 -0400



Update: First Nicaragua, now Venezuela.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Friday he had decided to offer asylum to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who has petitioned several countries to avoid capture by Washington.

"I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young American, Edward Snowden, so that in the fatherland of (Simon) Bolivar and (Hugo) Chavez, he can come and live away from the imperial North American persecution,"

Maduro told a televised parade marking Venezuela's independence day. Snowden is believed to be holed up in the transit area of a Moscow international airport.
And so the "lead investor" principle comes to the asylum world. Now everyone wants a piece of the pie.
Earlier:
Just the headline for now from AFP...


Agence France-Presse        ✔ @AFP

Nicaragua's president says he's willing to give Edward asylum


We can't help but wonder how long before the US Marines invade again and take him home...
Via Reuters,
Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega said on Friday that he had received an asylum request from U.S. fugitive Edward Snowden and could accept the bid "if circumstances permit."

Via LaJornada,
President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, said today ready to grant asylum to the informant and U.S. secret services specialist Edward Snowden, and said he would "be happy, if circumstances allow."

Speaking at a rally against government supporters in Managua, Ortega confirmed that Snowden sought refuge in this country, through a letter delivered in recent days to the Nicaraguan embassy in Russia.
UPDATE: Via Russia Today,
"We are open, respectful of the right to asylum, and it is clear that if circumstances permit it, we would receive Snowden with pleasure and give him asylum here in Nicaragua," Ortega said at a public event.




Tyler Durden's picture

Iceland Denies Snowden's Bid For Citizenship

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/05/2013 - 13:16
So much for Iceland's bid as the world safe haven from government (and intellectual status quo) persecution. The tiny country that was such a vocal supporter of Julian Assange, and which originally was speculated as being the final destination of Snowden upon his departure from Hong Kong, has just opined on his request for Icelandic citizenship, and the answer is a resounding no, following the country's "parliament voted not to debate it before the summer recess" Reuters reports.


‘We don’t need US Embassy in Bolivia’: Morales, UNASUR slam ‘imperial’ skyjack, demand apologies


Published time: July 04, 2013 23:38
Edited time: July 05, 2013 08:06
(L-R) Bolivia's Vice-President Alvaro Garcia Linera, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, Bolivia's President Evo Morales (L) and Ecuador's President Rafael Correa listen to the Bolivian national anthem during a welcoming gathering in honour of Morales, in Cochabamba, on July 4, 2013 (AFP Photo / Jorge Bernal)
(L-R) Bolivia's Vice-President Alvaro Garcia Linera, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, Bolivia's President Evo Morales (L) and Ecuador's President Rafael Correa listen to the Bolivian national anthem during a welcoming gathering in honour of Morales, in Cochabamba, on July 4, 2013 (AFP Photo / Jorge Bernal)

Tags
Intelligence, Law, Meeting, Planes,Politics, Scandal, Security, South America, USA

An emergency UNASUR meeting has demanded the governments of France, Portugal, Italy and Spain apologize for forcibly halting President Morales’s plane in Austria due to suspicions Edward Snowden might have been aboard.

The Cochabamba Declaration issued at the summit also denounced "the flagrant violation of international treaties." 
Tensions flared at the UNASUR summit in Bolivia, with the country’s president Evo Morales saying that his “hand would not shake” if and when he “closes the US Embassy,” following the forced stop of presidential plane in Austria. 
Spain has spoken out in response, stating that it has no reason to apologize to Bolivia. "Spain doesn't have to ask pardon in anyway because its airspace was never closed,” Reuters quoted Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo as saying.
Ahead of the summit, the Bolivian President has expressed appreciation for the support he has received so far from Latin American countries.
"Apologies from a country that did not let us pass over its territory are not enough," Morales said before talks in the central city of Cochabamba. "Some governments apologized, saying it was an error, but this was not an error." 
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa pointed out, “We are here to support Bolivia.” 
Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro stressed, "Violation of international law against Evo Morales is against all of us.” 
Cristina Fernandez, who came to Bolivia a bit later than her counterparts, indicated, “It is curious that those who speak of human rights committed this violation.” 
Jose Mujica of Uruguay and Desi Bouterse of Suriname are also attending the summit. 
Not all the regional leaders attended the summit. The presidents of Colombia, Chile and Peru, who are considered to have strong ties to the US, were not present. However, the delegations of these countries expressed their solidarity with Evo Morales as well. 
Bolivia's President Evo Morales waves to the crowd during a meeting with Bolivian social organizations in Cochabamba July 4, 2013 (Reuters / David Mercado)
Bolivia's President Evo Morales waves to the crowd during a meeting with Bolivian social organizations in Cochabamba July 4, 2013 (Reuters / David Mercado)

The meeting of South American leaders takes place after President Morales’s plane was forced to stopin Austria on Tuesday.
It happened due to suspicions that NSA leaker Edward Snowden was on board. The plane was searched by Austrian authorities, but they found nothing. 
All in all, the President’s layover in Vienna lasted for about 14 hours. 
Morales received a hero's welcome at the airport in Bolivia’s capital of La Paz late Wednesday night. 
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)